In Quest of a Shared Planet

¿With vivid ethnography we are transported to the central hub of climate politics and invited to share in the aspirations of youth activists and the enduring labors of COP negotiators and to view the climate crisis from the perspective of the Global South. Analytically sophisticated, with stories that bring us to the heart of the conversations shaping our socioenvironmental futures, In Quest of a Shared Planet is precisely the kind of dialog we need to be having now.¿¿Cymene Howe, Rice University
¿Khan shows us the game of global climate negotiations, in which the world¿s nations play for the immensely high stakes of reshaping economies to avoid existential disaster. From her close-in position as an embedded ethnographer, she articulates the brilliant strategies by which one small poor country, Bangladesh, succeeded in advancing the needs of the world¿s most vulnerable people.¿¿Ben Orlove, Columbia University
In Quest of a Shared Planet introduces readers to the only existing global approach to the problem of climate change. Tracing how people navigate the United Nations-led Conference of Parties (COP), Naveeda Khan walks us through the intricacies of climate negotiations and the ways countries of the Global South that are most vulnerable to climate change maneuver to make progress in a slow-moving process in which they are not expected to wield a great deal of influence.
Focusing on Bangladesh¿s delegation, Khan elaborates what it means to be a small, poor, and dependent country within the climate process. The book profiles how negotiators and activists bring their principles, strategies, emotions, and visions into view. It explores how the newest pillar of climate action, loss and damage, emerged historically, how developed countries have attempted to control it; and how it may be reformulated beyond the normal geopolitical faultlines as a gift to the youth of the world.
Deeply insightful and highly readable, In Quest of a Shared Planet is a stirring call to action that highlights the key role responsive and active youth have in climate negotiations. It is an invitation not only to understand the climate negotiation process, but to navigate and critique it, with sympathy and an eye to viable alternatives.
Naveeda Khan is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University.