Biography
Frances Butler is a doctoral researcher in the Department of Geography at University College London, UK. Her research explores state responses to sea level rise in coastal Louisiana. Frances has a MSc in Climate Change Management jointly winning the sustainable futures prize (Birkbeck London University) and a law degree (Bristol University). She is currently Chair of Friends of the Earth Limited having previously been the Chair of Liberty (NCCL), a Specialist Adviser to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research. Before that she practised law in the UK and in the United States. She is the author of publications and papers on law, human rights and geography.
Research
This research project investigates state responses to sea level rise in Louisiana. The intention is to understand how federal, State and parish authorities and agencies fulfil their legal and administrative responsibilities to protect the state from land loss. Currently experiencing the most wetland loss in the United States, Louisiana is a location long familiar with the risks associated with flooding and a history of state attempts to control it. The extreme physical threats have generated a ‘master plan’ for the state to coalesce around under the auspices of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. With this integrated initiative, Louisiana is modelling a practical response that other authorities in threatened locations can learn from. This research is interested in what the state-wide response appears to represent: the fulfilment of the core state function of protection against harm. By empirically researching the way in which the various state authorities and agencies in Louisiana are responding to the coastal problems, the project intends to explore the issue of state responsibility. By exploring the concept of what is the state’s job to do, the project aims to reframe notions of state responsibility and accountability in relation to climate change.
