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Navigating Climate Justice Summary report

INTRODUCTION

In March 2022, Climate Reality Europe's climate justice interest group conducted the four module virtual training "Navigating Climate Justice". The overall aims of the group are to identify systemic inequalities within the climate sphere and to demonstrate the ability of impacted communities to be agents of change. Participants in the training discussed definitions of climate justice, identified the communities that bear the brunt of the climate crisis, and brainstormed options for ethical, inclusive, and effective engagement.

This report summarizes the main outcomes of the four sessions and concludes with action steps on how to be a climate justice ally.

Special thanks go to our Climate Reality Leaders and co-organizers of the training Bradlie Martz-Sigala, Cécilia Raza, Paola Villavicencio, and Spela Bandelj.

"Climate Reality Leaders have a voice, and with that comes responsibility to use it to tell stories of change, hope, and prosperity to audiences we are connected to."

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CLIMATE JUSTICE

Climate justice is an intersectional way of looking at the impacts of climate change and the impacts of climate policies. It includes gender, race, ethnicity, health status, economic status, and other socio-demographic pillars that define people’s security and coping mechanisms in the context of climate change and climate action.

Climate justice is both a historical and a future notion: it takes into account historical events that oftentimes stem from colonization and imperialism and highlights how marginalized communities will be disproportionately affected by climate impacts now and in the future. It also encompasses social justice, acknowledging that the price of essential climate action should not be paid by countries that have not contributed to the crisis historically but that are suffering most from its impacts.

As a form of environmental justice, climate justice is the fair treatment of all people and freedom from discrimination in the creation of policies and projects that address climate change.

Climate justice has been defined by academics as a concept that “[…] links human rights and development to achieve a human-centred approach, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable people and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its impacts equitably and fairly."

Justice means recognizing that vulnerable groups typically contribute least to climate change but are paying the highest price for the greenhouse gas emissions of developed countries.

It also means recognizing that those who are most affected by climate change are also likely to be exposed to other forms of injustice while having the fewest resources to tackle them.

Justice means acknowledging that climate change is amplifying the gap between those who have resources and those who do not.

In practice this means the involvement of everyone, especially the voices of the most impacted, in climate discussions.

Everyone has the right to clean air, forests, and land, and to health and wellbeing in a world without crisis.

Climate justice in practice means that support is available to the vulnerable, and financial assistance is given to the underprivileged.

MOST AFFECTED COMMUNITIES

In principle, climate change affects all people and other non-human beings on the planet. However, not everyone is affected in the same way. Vulnerable groups, who bear the least responsibility for the climate crisis, are affected differently.

Community might be local, regional, or global. We all belong somewhere where we can engage, and there are many levels at which we can become involved. Community may be made up of those who are geographically close, those who share the same values or demographics, or those who choose to accept responsibility for one another.

We identified the most affected communities, as being:

Poor and low-income individuals and communities

They are already politically, socially and economically marginalized and live in the most fragile and high-risk areas as well as in poorly built homes with low-quality infrastructure, often without even essential services. These communities are ill-equipped to handle climate change impacts and do not have sufficient resources to recover their losses or to pay for health care.

MIGRANTS

Climate change is creating more migrants than refugees fleeing violent conflicts. Most migrants stay within their own country, but some are forced to flee and risk becoming international “illegal migrants”. They face poverty and struggle to find work, risk dangerous journeys and are subject to hostility, discrimination and intolerance.

Example: In 2020, 4 million people were displaced in India due to natural disasters.

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

They are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events, as their limited mobility and reliance on support make it harder for them to move away. People with disabilities have less access to information and appropriate accommodation and are rarely included in climate discussions.

Example: In 2021, floods in Germany killed 12 residents of a home for people with disabilities.

MINORITIES

They are already vulnerable due to systematic racism and other socio-political factors and live in high-impacted areas in substandard housing and polluted neighbourhoods that lack basic services. Because of exclusion, they are less well equipped to deal with climate disasters and their voices are not heard in the climate discourse.

Example: In 2014, Roma people were disproportionately affected by floods in Bulgaria as they were living in improvised shelters near polluted land.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

They are particularly sensitive to climate change impacts due to their close relationship with the environment. They often live in vulnerable areas due to a history of expropriation, land grabbing, and forced evictions, and generally have less influence in decision making at local, national, and international level.

Example: Higher temperatures in the European Arctic are causing sea ice loss and affecting the Sami people.

CHILDREN AND WOMEN

They are disproportionately burdened by the climate crisis and will bear the costs in the future. Children will face on average seven times more heatwaves during their lives than their parents. Social, economic, and cultural factors make women and girls especially vulnerable: they are at a greater risk of death or injury by natural disasters, are exposed to violence when displaced, and are at risk of child marriage in the poorest families.

Example: Over 70% of those displaced by flooding in Pakistan in 2010 were women and children.

“By stressing the fact that everyone experiences the impacts of climate change differently, we can begin focusing on changing the system and eliminating inequalities rather than expecting others to adapt to them.”

ACHIEVING CLIMATE JUSTICE

Below are some recommendations about how climate justice can be achieved:

🛡️Safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable, including them in negotiations and decision making, and acknowledging common but differentiated responsibility: although less affected, rich countries have been emitting for longer and in higher quantities and thus bear the greater burden of responsibility.

🎖️Creating opportunities for people to make positive impacts to the best of their abilities and acknowledging that climate action cannot be a priority for all, especially the most vulnerable communities that are struggling to access food, water, healthcare, and education. Trying to highlight that our changing climate is interlinked with many other global challenges and that solutions can tackle more than one problem.

🧩Acknowledging the needs, culture, and context of the most vulnerable and recognizing that climate action is initiated by listening, not telling.

⚖️Upholding human rights within the justice system.

👩‍👧‍👦Empowering women and young people on climate issues and benefiting from the enormous contribution they have to make.

🪆Harnessing the transformative power of education and its role in tackling the crisis: Women typically make decisions in households while being traditionally less well educated in communities that are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis. This has a knock-on effect that makes climate education vital: “When you educate a girl, you educate the whole community."

🏬Climate justice requires sustainable business strategies: All stakeholder groups need to be part of the discussion when planning initiatives, and this includes consideration of the needs and limitations of the planet.

📚The viewpoints of young people and women are essential: This requires making climate education part of the school curriculum and training teachers to respond to the questions their students raise. Justice starts in schools and families, where children’s attitudes can be shaped. Climate literacy is not just about knowing the technology but about being aware of human needs and showing compassion in one’s behaviour and choices.

🪙Climate justice is not only about climate mitigation, but may also involve community adaptation: Communities must be adequately supported and empowered in disaster reduction. The impacts of climate change are leading to climate migration, and migrant communities need understanding and support.

☮️Caring and empathy for all living things is essential: Disasters and migration must be understood as affecting all of us, as part of the human community. Those of us living in more privileged conditions must accept responsibility for the vulnerable, which may require capacity building for caring and empathy.

📉Drastic reductions in emissions are needed among developed countries. The need is urgent, not democratic. Rich countries have the greatest responsibility. In addition to mitigating climate change, they must finance adaptation in countries facing the worst consequences of climate change in order to save lives and protect livelihoods.

⚡Renewable energies must be promoted in a way that involves local communities and indigenous peoples potentially impacted by such development. They must be included in discussion and decision making, and their recognized rights, such as their right to their land, must be respected.

💌Climate action must be guided by an inclusive, context-sensitive approach in terms of gender and ethnicity and must be people focused.

ETHICAL AND RESPONSIBLE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Ethical behavior is defined by a community’s beliefs and values. If you don’t share those, you must at least accept them and agree on a common and equitable approach before engaging. This is also true when working on climate justice.

Learn to leverage community expertise. The critical first step to engagement is recognizing that the members of a community are the experts on their own lives. As an external expert, you may have technical skills and academic knowledge, but you are present for only a short time. You need to work with communities and benefit from the knowledge that already exists in them. Community asset mapping is a tool for identifying strengths and resources and determining how to access them. The key principle of community asset mapping is that change is mobilized by and for the community, rather than being imposed by outsiders.

Invest time in understanding the community’s social, political, and historical context, and listen respectfully to every individual member. Cultural values must be understood before solutions can be suggested.

“What motivates me to engage in the community for climate justice is the process of putting myself in the shoes of others and recognizing what separates our circumstances, lives, and resources.”

CLIMATE LITIGATION

Climate change litigation takes the form of community-led initiatives in which citizens, NGOs or activists challenge the actions or omissions of governments or corporations in national courts due to their negative and often harmful impacts on the environment and people.

One example is The Urgenda Foundation versus the Netherlands (2019), a case brought against the Dutch government by a climate activist group representing the interests of Dutch citizens. The activists argued that by continuing to favor fossil fuels over renewables, the government was not meeting its emissions reduction goals and was thus failing to protect human rights, despite its commitments under EU law.

Cases have also been brought against companies to challenge greenwashing and the dissemination of misleading information.

However, litigation in itself is a double-edged sword: it can be used to challenge unambitious climate policies and uphold the human right to protection against harmful climate change, but it can also be used to undermine climate action. Climate justice therefore means both guaranteeing community rights when implementing climate projects and protecting climate activists from criminal liability.

Legal grounds for climate litigation:

  • Human rights enshrined in international treaties
  • The rights of future generations
  • Duty of care, or the legal obligation of governments to maintain the health and wellbeing of citizens and cause no damage
  • Procedural rights, such as public participation in decision making
  • The rights of nature and of non-human entities such as rivers

Alternatives to litigation: Litigation may be a time-consuming and expensive process, while the outcomes are uncertain and potentially counterproductive. However, there are simple and effective ways to claim rights without legal counsel.

The Aarhus Convention grants public rights with respect to access to information, public participation in decision making, and access to environmental justice, thus promoting communities’ rights to be heard by governments and to challenge government actions in environmental matters that affect them.

You can take action under the following three rights:

1) Request information about the environment

This includes the state of the environment, human health issues, and policies and measures adopted by the ratifying governments and institutions. You are entitled to obtain the information within one month of your request. The Parties of the Convention can refuse to act on your request only under particular circumstances.

2) Take part in environmental decision making

You can take part in making decisions and in legislative processes where there may be an environmental impact. This includes the preparation of plans, programs, policies, and legislation that may affect the environment. Public authorities on a national, regional and local level must publish notices informing the public how they can give feedback, which must then be considered when making decisions.

3) Access to justice

You can ask for a review of public authority decisions that may affect the environment and have the right to judicial or administrative procedures in case a Party violates the Convention's principles or environmental law.

More information about the Convention and how you can engage can be found on the website of the European Commission.

TAKE ACTION!

  • Raise awareness and funds for local grassroots organizations working on climate justice.
  • Connect with community organizations, including women’s groups, environmental NGOs, cultural institutions, and business forums, and listen to their stories and needs.
  • Research local biodiversity and resources, document how they are impacted by climate change, and support actions by individuals and communities.
  • Cultivate contacts with politicians and activists already working on similar issues, as well as influential figures in the community and media representatives who can help spread information.
“The values and principles I am committed to are active listening, showing empathy, tolerance, and respect, being humble, and devoting energy to empowering and nourishing people. The way we practice activism should be contagious, igniting and sparking joy by creating impact together with others.”
Created By
Climate Reality Europe
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Credits:

Created with images by AndriiKoval - "The phrase " Climate justice now " drawn on a carton banner in woman's hand. Protest for ecology. Human holds a cardboard with an inscription: Climate justice now" • Halfpoint - "Rear view of people with placards and posters on global strike for climate change." • lovelyday12 - "people helping planting tree in nature for save earth." • treviandrea7 - "photograph taken in the Kibera slums in Nairobi during the stay of the Pope in Kenya. more than 500,000 people live here without essential services." • Ajdin Kamber - "Refugees and migrants walking on fields. Group of refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan on their way to European union. Balkan route. People walking " • Svyatoslav Lypynskyy - "Close-up of hand on pushrim of wheelchair" • Zoran - "Gypsy family in an Gypsy street " • Fotos 593 - "Closeup of an indigenous woman's hands, Chimborazo, Ecuador" • davide bonaldo - "african mother and two children walk alone in red clay road in village as a family in traditional dress" • ink drop - "People with banners protest as part of a climate change march" • Melinda Nagy - "climate change or global warming banner - double exposure of polluting factory smoke and pine forest" • Ronny Friedrich - "Changing forest ecosystem treetops from the sky woods forestry protection preservation manage and cultivate sustainability climate" • OSORIOartist - "People gather to protest climate change" • Richard Carey - "Environmental damage. Deforestation and logging. Aerial photo of forest cut down causing climate change " • lukjonis - "Cracked earth, metaphoric for climate change and global warming" • DisobeyArt - "Group of demonstrators on road, young people from different culture and race fight for climate change - Global warming and enviroment concept - Main focus on asian girl face"