Sonja Klinsky
-
Phone: 480-727-0834
-
-
Mail code: 7904Campus: Tempe
-
Dr. Sonja Klinsky is an Associate Professor at the School of Sustainability, Arizona State University. Her research and teaching practice centers around the justice dilemmas presented by climate change and climate change policy design at multiple scales. As an engaged scholar she has prioritized inter and transdisciplinary collaborations that are focused on the real-world challenges of building justice into sustainability transitions. Within this her work has explored strategies for better including considerations about justice within public policy analysis practices and governance processes domestically and internationally. She has been an observer to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since 2009, is a coordinating member of the Equity Working Group of the independent Global Stocktake, and is an Associate Editor for Climate Policy Journal. She has also maintained an active presence in the community and is a common resource person for community groups, service clubs, schools, professional associations, and other organizations grappling with the complexities of engaging productively in the climate challenge.
- Ph.D. Resource Management and Environmental Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada 2010
- M.A. Geography, McGill University, Canada 2004
- B.S. International Development and Environmental Science (Honors), University of Toronto, Canada 2001
Sonja Klinsky's primary research interests are in understanding how we are, could, and possibly should deal with the multitude of justice dilemmas raised by climate change - and our responses to this - at multiple scales. Although justice is an inherent component of decision making in the climage and sustainability context, it is not always explicity identified or included in efforts to address the challenges of changing social, technological, economic, or political patterns to become more sustainable. Accordingly, her work has focused on: identifying implicit ways in which (in)justice is embedded in policies proposals, discourses, and policy analysis tools; actively contributing tools and strategies that make it more likely that justice concerns will be integrated into decision-making; and collaborating with members of the public, community groups, and other civil society organizations to support efforts towards a more just and sustainable future.
Books:
Klinsky, S. and Brankovic, J. (2018) The Global Climate Regime and Transitional Justice Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Global-Climate-Regime-and-Transitional-Justice/Klinsky-Brankovic/p/book/9780415786027
Journal Articles:
Cooley, S., Klinsky, S., Morrow, D., Satterfield, T. (forthcoming) Sociotechnical Considerations About Ocean Carbon Dioxide Removal. Annual Review of Marine Science. Vol 15
Klinsky, S. and Sagar, A (2022). Guest Editorial. “The Why, How, and What of Capacity Building: Some Explorations”. Climate Policy Journal vol 22, Is 5
Nautiyal, Snigdha, and Sonja Klinsky. 2022. “The Knowledge Politics of Capacity-Building for Climate Change at the UNFCCC.” Climate Policy.Klinsky, S. and Sagar, A. Guest Editorial. “The Why, How, and What of Capacity Building: Some Explorations”. Climate Policy Journal vol 22, Is 5
Dooley, Kate, Christian Holz, Sivan Kartha, Sonja Klinsky, J. Timmons Roberts, Henry Shue, Harald Winkler, et al.( 2021) “Ethical Choices behind Quantifications of Fair Contributions under the Paris Agreement.” Nature Climate Change 11, no. 4: 300–305.
Stoddard, Isak, Kevin Anderson, Stuart Capstick, Wim Carton, Joanna Depledge, Keri Facer, Clair Gough, Sonja Klinsky et al. (2021) “Three Decades of Climate Mitigation: Why Haven’t We Bent the Global Emissions Curve?” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 46, no. 1: 653–89.
Klinsky, S. and Mavrogianni, A. (2020) Guest Editorial. “Climate Justice and the Built Environment”. Buildings and Cities. 1(1), 412–428 http://doi.org/10.5334/bc.65
Adams, M., Klinsky ,S., Chhetri, N. (2019) “Barriers to Sustainability in Poor Marginalized Communities in the United States: The Criminal Justice, the Prison-Industrial Complex and Foster Care Systems” Sustainability. 12 (1).
Klinsky, S. (2018) Climate Justice Needs Feminism. Invited “Open Space” essay for Feminist Review 118(1), 103-111
Klinsky, S. and Winkler, H. (2018) Building Equity In: Strategies for Integrating Equity into Modeling for a 1.5 °C World. Philosophical Transactions A. Vol 376, Is. 2119 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2016.0461
Klinsky, S. (2017). Transitional Justice for Climate Change? An Initial Scoping. Climate Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2017.1377594
Nardo, M. D., J. S. Brooks, S. Klinsky, and C. Wilson. (2017). Social signals and sustainability: ambiguity about motivations can affect status perceptions of efficiency and curtailment behaviors. Environment Systems and Decisions 37 (2):184–197. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-017-9624-y
Klinsky, S., T. Roberts, S. Huq, C. Okereke, P. Newell, P. Dauvergne, K. O’Brien, H. Schroeder, P. Tschakert, J. Clapp, M. Keck, F. Biermann, D. Liverman, J. Gupta, A. Rahman, D. Messner, D. Pellow, and S. Bauer. (2017). Why equity is fundamental in climate change policy research. Global Environmental Change 44:170–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.08.002
Klinsky, S., D. Waskow, E. Northrop, and W. Bevins. (2016). Operationalizing equity and supporting ambition: identifying a more robust approach to ‘respective capabilities.’ Climate and Development 9 (4):287–297. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2016.1146121
Klinsky, S. 2016. The challenges of studying capitalism and its discontents. Environmental Research Letters 11(1):. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/11/1/011001. (link )
Klinsky, S. 2015. Justice and boundary setting in greenhouse gas cap and trade policy: A case study of the Western Climate Initiative. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 105(1):105-122. DOI: 10.1080/00045608.2014.960043. (link )
Klinsky, S. and H. Winkler. 2014. Equity, sustainable development and climate policy. Climate Policy 14(1):107. DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2014.859352. (link )
Klinsky, S. 2013. Bottom-up policy lessons emerging from the Western Climate Intiaitve's development challenges. Climate Policy 13(2):143-169. DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2012.712457. (link )
Vignola, R., S. Klinsky, J. Tam and T. McDaniels. 2013. Public perception, knowledge and policy support for mitigation and adaptation to Climate Change in Costa Rica: Comparisons with North American and European studies. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 18(3):303-323. DOI: 10.1007/s11027-012-9364-8. (link )
Klinsky, S., H. Dowlatabadi and T. McDaniels. 2012. Comparing public rationales for justice trade-offs in mitigation and adaptation climate policy dilemmas. Global Environment Change Part A: Human & Policy Dimensions 22(4):862-876. DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.05.008. (link )
Klinsky, S., M. Mehing and A. Tuerk. 2012. Beyond déjà vu: Opportunities for policy learning from emissions trading in developed countries. Carbon and Climate Law Review 4:291-305. (link )
Klinsky, S., R. Sieber and T. Meredith. 2010. Connecting local to global: Geographic information systems and ecological footprints as tools for sustainability. The Professional Geographer 62(1):84-102.
Klinsky, S. and H. Dowlatabadi. 2009. Conceptualizations of justice in climate change policy. Climate Policy 9(1):88-108.
Klinsky, S., R. Sieber and T. Meredith. 2009. Creating local ecological footprints in a North American context. Local Environment 14(6):495-513.
Klinsky, S. 2007. Mapping emergence: Network analysis of climate change media. Integrated Assessment 7(1):1-24.
Book Chapters
Klinsky, S and Gupta, A (2019) Taming Equity in Multilateral Climate Politics: A Shift from Responsibilities to Capacities in Meadowcroft, J., Banister, D., Holden, E., Langhelle, O., Linnerud, K., Gilpin,G. (eds) What’s Next for Sustainable Development: Our Common Future at Thirty. Edward Elgar Press.
Klinsky, S. (2018) Chapter Ten: Not Just a Case Study: Strategies for Researching Climate Change Politics in Dauvergne, P. and Alger, J. (eds) A Research Agenda in Global Environmental Politics. Edward Elgar
Klinsky, S. (2018). Beyond the Academy: Reflecting on Public Scholarship About Climate Justice in Jafrey, T. (ed) The Routledge Handbook of Climate Justice. Routledge
Boone, C. and Klinsky, S. (2016) Environmental Justice and Transitions to a Sustainable Urban Future. Handbook of Urbanization and Global Environmental Change. Eds. Karen Seto and William Solecki. Routledge.
Klinsky, S., and Grubb. M. (2015) From Theory to Practice: Climate policy and political feasibility. In Decarbonizing the World Economy Crawford-Brown. D. and Barker, T. (Eds). Cambridge University Press
Klinsky S., and Golub, A. (2015) Justice and Sustainability. In Handbook of Sustainability, (Eds) Wiek, A., Heinrichs, H.
Klinsky, S. (2014) Towards constructive fairness: applying the social-psychology of fairness to climate policy. In The Way Forward in International Climate Policy: Key Issues and New Ideas 2014, de Coninck, H., Lorch, R., Sagar, A. (eds) Climate and Development Knowledge Network
Courses
2025 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 599 | Thesis |
SOS 520 | Research Design |
SOS 790 | Reading and Conference |
SOS 792 | Research |
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
SOS 494 | Special Topics |
SOS 598 | Special Topics |
2024 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 792 | Research |
SOS 310 | Equity, Justice & Sustainblity |
SOS 310 | Equity, Justice & Sustainblity |
SOS 790 | Reading and Conference |
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
2024 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 599 | Thesis |
SOS 790 | Reading and Conference |
SOS 790 | Reading and Conference |
SOS 792 | Research |
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
2023 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 792 | Research |
SOS 310 | Equity, Justice & Sustainblity |
SOS 310 | Equity, Justice & Sustainblity |
SOS 790 | Reading and Conference |
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
2023 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
HDA 593 | Applied Project |
2023 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
SOS 599 | Thesis |
SOS 790 | Reading and Conference |
SOS 792 | Research |
SOS 598 | Special Topics |
SOS 494 | Special Topics |
SOS 520 | Research Design |
2022 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 792 | Research |
SOS 310 | Equity, Justice & Sustainblity |
SOS 310 | Equity, Justice & Sustainblity |
SOS 790 | Reading and Conference |
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
2022 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
SOS 599 | Thesis |
SOS 792 | Research |
SOS 598 | Special Topics |
SOS 494 | Special Topics |
2021 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 520 | Research Design |
SOS 310 | Equity, Justice & Sustainblity |
SOS 792 | Research |
SOS 790 | Reading and Conference |
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
2021 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
SOS 599 | Thesis |
SOS 792 | Research |
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
SOS 598 | Special Topics |
SOS 494 | Special Topics |
2020 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 520 | Research Design |
SOS 310 | Equity, Justice & Sustainblity |
SOS 792 | Research |
SOS 394 | Special Topics |
SOS 499 | Individualized Instruction |
SOS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
SOS 790 | Reading and Conference |
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
2020 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 799 | Dissertation |
SOS 599 | Thesis |
SOS 792 | Research |
2019 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
SOS 792 | Research |
SOS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
SOS 790 | Reading and Conference |
SOS 799 | Dissertation |