‘What do we want? Climate Justice!’: understanding the global movement
Written by Yuv Sungkur.
Climate change is not only an issue of environmental conservation, but also an issue of justice and human rights. More than changes in the temperature, climate change entails social, racial, and gender injustices that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations. While those most responsible for climate change are relatively insulated from its impacts, it is those who have contributed least that are likely to feel the effects most significantly.
What is climate justice?
When talking about climate justice, the most important notion to understand is that the notion is based on the idea that the climate crisis is unfair. The notion stipulates that climate change disproportionately affects the poor, marginalized and younger communities instead of the rich, older majority. It underlines that it is those who have done the least to cause climate change that ends up suffering the most from its effects. As the United Nations writes: “The impacts of climate change will not be borne equally or fairly, between rich and poor, women and men, and older and younger generations.”
More than a concept, climate justice is a social movement rallying millions of people around the world. Internationally, the movement calls on developed, rich countries to acknowledge their historical responsibility in emitting greenhouse gas emissions and therefore assist vulnerable countries to adapt and fight the impacts of climate change. In other words, climate justice is a movement that calls for the countries responsible for this global crisis to accept their responsibility and pay up for the damages.
This assistance firstly calls for financial aid. At COP15 in 2009, developed countries committed to a collective goal of mobilizing USD 100 billion per year by 2020 to support climate action in developing countries. This goal has not been met. Indeed, the OECD found that in 2020 developed countries jointly mobilized USD 83.3 billion in climate finance, USD 16.7 billion short of the goal.
It also calls for technology transfer (equipment) and capacity building (learning methods, knowledge sharing) to ensure that developing countries pursue a sustainable development pathway and, by the same occasion, not reiterate the same mistakes.
A popular movement, yet…
The Climate Justice movement is expanding massively around the world, thanks to the amazing work of climate activists like Greta Thundberg and the Fridays for Future organizations. And frankly, it makes sense. The movement is appealing, especially for the youth. The climate crisis is intersectional, meaning that as of today, everyone in their own field of work is at least conscious of the crisis. In recent years, climate change went from a science-based issue to a social battle that has become the main fight of my generation. Wanting climate justice entails wanting social justice, racial justice, and gender equality. It's truly a beautiful movement that aims for equal and fair treatment of our people.
The movement made waves in recent years, both in popular culture, and high-level negotiation rooms. In 2015, the climate justice movement was endorsed by Small Island Developing States (SIDS) at COP21 and Paris. Thanks to their relentless advocacy on-and-off the negotiations, the SIDS successfully implemented the 1.5 degree threshold to not exceed. Influential youth leaders like Greta Thundberg and Vanessa Nakate are getting more exposure on social media, and are invited to deliver keynote speeches in front of the world’s most powerful president in the likes of Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden and Narendra Modi.
In popular culture, festivals like We Love Green, and Power our Planet are rallying hundreds of thousands of people every year. Dedicated Stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Bill Gates fully committed to the cause and launched respective foundations. Overall, the climate justice movement, and climate-consciousness is increasingly mainstreamed in popular culture, and we must be proud of it.
The rich keep polluting, while the poorest keep suffering.
Unfortunately, the world is not all rose and sunshine. While the movement is rapidly progressing, the rich countries keep on polluting. Behind all the speeches, proning ‘collective action’ and false promises; fossil fuel drilling projects continue to get approved.
Six months ago, Biden approved the Willow Project, a major $8bn oil and gas drilling project in Alaska. On an annual basis, that would translate into 9.2 million metric tons of carbon pollution, equal to adding nearly two million cars to the roads each year. For reference, this project alone is equivalent to polluting 2x more than Mauritius, and 1000x more than Tuvalu, yearly.
The biggest oil project, and the most controversial one, is powered by France and the giant Total Energie. The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is a fossil fuel drilling project based in Uganda. EACOP will increase the severity of the global climate emergency by transporting oil that will generate over 34 million tons of carbon emissions each year. In addition, it is estimated that more than 40 million of Ugandans will be affected by this project - and you can guess that the profit of EACOP will only enrich multinational corporations like Total Energie, who, by the way, made a massive profit of USD 38 billion in 2022.
Conclusion
Throughout the past decades, climate change has gradually evolved into a human rights issue encompassing a strikingly unfair treatment of the most marginalized. It is crucial to push the climate justice agenda forward, locally and internationally, and ensure that our voice is heard.
