![System Change, not Climate Change Vienna COP21](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/System_Change%2C_not_Climate_Change_Vienna_COP21.png)
Climate justice is a concept that addresses the just division, fair sharing, and equitable distribution of the burdens of
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
and its mitigation and responsibilities to deal with climate change. "Justice", "fairness", and "equity" are not completely identical, but they are in the same family of related terms and are often used interchangeably in negotiations and politics.
Applied ethics
Applied ethics refers to the practical aspect of moral considerations. It is ethics with respect to real-world actions and their moral considerations in the areas of private and public life, the professions, health, technology, law, and leadersh ...
,
research
Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...
and activism using these terms approach anthropogenic climate change as an ethical, legal and
political issue
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
, rather than one that is purely
environmental
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
or
physical
Physical may refer to:
*Physical examination
In a physical examination, medical examination, or clinical examination, a medical practitioner examines a patient for any possible medical signs or symptoms of a medical condition. It generally co ...
in nature. This is done by relating the causes and
effects of climate change
The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice (glaciers), sea level ...
to concepts of
justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
, particularly
environmental justice
Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justic ...
and
social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
. Climate justice examines concepts such as
equality
Equality may refer to:
Society
* Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing
** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elit ...
,
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
,
collective rights
Group rights, also known as collective rights, are rights held by a group '' qua'' a group rather than individually by its members; in contrast, individual rights are rights held by individual people; even if they are group-differentiated, which ...
, and the historical responsibilities for climate change. Climate justice actions can include the growing
global body of legal action on climate change issues. In 2017, a report of the
United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...
identified 894 ongoing legal actions worldwide. Climate justice is an aspect of
SDG 13 under UN
Agenda 2030
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...
.
Use and popularity of climate justice language has increased dramatically in recent years, yet climate justice is understood in many ways, and the different meanings are sometimes contested. At its simplest, conceptions of climate justice can be grouped along the lines of
procedural justice
Procedural justice is the idea of fairness in the processes that resolve disputes and allocate resources. One aspect of procedural justice is related to discussions of the administration of justice and legal proceedings. This sense of procedura ...
, which emphasizes fair, transparent and inclusive decision making, and
distributive justice
Distributive justice concerns the socially just allocation of resources. Often contrasted with just process, which is concerned with the administration of law, distributive justice concentrates on outcomes. This subject has been given considera ...
, which places the emphasis on who bears the costs of both climate change and the actions taken to address it.
Working Group II of the IPCC now adds as a third type of principles of climate justice “recognition which entails basic respect and robust engagement with and fair consideration of diverse cultures and perspectives”.
Alternatively, recognition and respect can be understood as the underlying basis for distributive and procedural justice.
A main factor in the increased popularity and consideration of climate justice was the rise of
grassroots movementssuch as
Fridays for Future
School Strike for Climate ( sv, Skolstrejk för klimatet), also known variously as Fridays for Future (FFF), Youth for Climate, Climate Strike or Youth Strike for Climate, is an international movement of school students who skip Friday ...
,
Ende Gelände
(EG) (German saying for "here and no further"; literally "end terrain" or "end of terrain") is a civil disobedience movement occupying coal mines in Germany to raise awareness for climate justice. Ende Gelände has been organizing mass civil d ...
or
Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk o ...
. A special focus is placed on the role of
Most Affected People and Areas Most Affected People and Areas, also known by its acronym MAPA, is a term that represents groups and territories disproportionately affected by climate change, such as women, indigenous communities, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ people, young, older and ...
(MAPA), i.e., groups overall disproportionately vulnerable to or affected by climate change, such as women, racial minorities, young, older and poorer people. Historically marginalized communities, such as low income, indigenous communities and communities of color often face the worst consequences of climate change: in effect the least responsible for climate change broadly suffer its gravest consequences. They might also be further disadvantaged by responses to climate change which might reproduce or exacerbate existing inequalities, which has been labeled the 'triple injustices' of climate change.
Some climate justice approaches promote
transformative justice
Transformative justice is a series of practices and philosophies designed to create change in social systems. Mostly, they are alternatives to criminal justice in cases of interpersonal violence, or are used for dealing with socioeconomic issues in ...
where advocates focus on how vulnerability to climate change reflects various structural injustices in society, such as the exclusion of marginalized groups from climate resilient livelihoods, and that climate action must explicitly address these structural power imbalances. For these advocates, at a minimum, priority is placed on ensuring that responses to climate change do not repeat or reinforce existing injustices, which has both distributive justice and procedural justice dimensions. Other conceptions frame climate justice in terms of the need to curb climate change within certain limits, like the
Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement (french: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, Climate change a ...
targets of 1.5 °C, as otherwise the impacts of climate change on natural ecosystems will be so severe as to preclude the possibility of justice for many generations and populations. Moreover, others argue that failure to address social implications of climate change mitigation transitions could result in profound economic and social tensions and delay necessary changes while ways that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a socially just waycalled a '
just transition'are possible, preferable, in better agreement with contemporary human rights, fairer, more ethical as well as possibly more effective.
Aspects and considerations
Disproportionality between causality and burden
![20210818 Greenhouse gas emissions by income category - UN Emissions Gap Report](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/20210818_Greenhouse_gas_emissions_by_income_category_-_UN_Emissions_Gap_Report.svg)
The responsibility for anthropogenic climate change differs substantially among individuals and groups. Studies find that the most affluent citizens of the world are responsible for most environmental impacts, and robust action by them is necessary for prospects of moving towards safer environmental conditions.
According to a 2020 report by
Oxfam
Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International.
History
Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...
and the
Stockholm Environment Institute
The Stockholm Environment Institute, or SEI, is a non-profit, independent research and policy institute specialising in sustainable development and environmental issues, with seven affiliate offices around the world. SEI works on climate change ...
, the richest 1% of the global population have caused twice as much carbon emissions as the poorest 50% over the 25 years from 1990 to 2015.
This was, respectively, during that period, 15% of cumulative emissions compared to 7%.
The bottom half of the population is directly-responsible for less than 20% of energy footprints and consume less than the top 5% in terms of trade-corrected energy. High-income individuals usually have higher
energy footprints as they disproportionally use their larger financial resourceswhich they can usually spend freely in their entirety for any purpose as long as the end user purchase is legalfor energy-intensive goods. In particular, the largest disproportionality was identified to be in the domain of transport, where e.g. the top 10% consume 56% of vehicle fuel and conduct 70% of vehicle purchases.
Aggravating the problem of injustice from disproportionate causality, many of the people and nations most affected by climate change are among the least responsible for it. A study projected that, depending on scenarios, regions inhabited by 1 to 3 billion people could become as hot as the hottest parts of the
Sahara
, photo = Sahara real color.jpg
, photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972
, map =
, map_image =
, location =
, country =
, country1 =
, ...
(a maximum annual temperature of >29 °C) within 50 years if there is no
change in patterns of population growth, climate change is not limited to below 1.5 °C and these people do not
migrate. It found most of these affected regions have little
adaptive capacity Adaptive capacity relates to the capacity of systems, institutions, humans and other organisms to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences. In the context of ecosystems, adaptive capacity is deter ...
as of 2020. One of the problems could be increased drought severity worldwide.
A study concluded that to total emissions,
investment
Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort.
In finance, the purpose of investing i ...
s of the global top 1% are far
more important than their personal consumption and that the pollution gap is larger within countries than between countries.
Its results include that:
* the "bottom 50% of the world population emitted 12% of global emissions in 2019, whereas the top 10% emitted 48% of the total"
* since 1990, "the bottom 50% of the world population has been responsible for only 16% of all emissions growth, whereas the top 1% has been responsible for 23% of the total"
* "per-capita emissions of the global top 1% increased since 1990,
hile
Hile ( ne, हिले) is a hill town located in the Eastern Part of Nepal, 13 km north of the regional center of Dhankuta Bazar. At an elevation of 1948 meters, it is the main route to other hilly districts like Bhojpur and Sankhuwasab ...
emissions from low- and middle-income groups within rich countries declined"
Responsibility and causes
Responsibility for climate change has been attributed to:
* fossil fuel companies
* consumers purchasing fossil fuels and goods produced using fossil fuels
* structures that distribute power and wealth to the fossil fuel companies
* lack of
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
and
contemporary free private investment into
sustainable development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...
* lack of alternatives (e.g. public transport infrastructure and advanced
sustainable energy
Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenh ...
grids)
* lack of policies that reduce fossil fuel consumption or their harmful effects
* lack of change development (e.g. eco-tariffs, new socioeconomic designs, changes in
subsidization and financial allocations, sustainability
certifications)
Many policies (and contemporary private endeavors such as voluntary ones by billionaires or
asset managers) may often have well-intentioned substantial positive environmental effects. But these may amount to (or have the purpose of)
greenwashing
Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims ...
. Or they may fall short of climate goals and policies since
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
is often based on
compromise
To compromise is to make a deal between different parties where each party gives up part of their demand. In arguments, compromise is a concept of finding agreement through communication, through a mutual acceptance of terms—often involving va ...
.
Intergenerational equity
The current nation states and world population need to make changes, including sacrifices (like uncomfortable lifestyle-changes, alterations to public spending and changes to choice of
work
Work may refer to:
* Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community
** Manual labour, physical work done by humans
** House work, housework, or homemaking
** Working animal, an animal t ...
), today to enable climate justice for
future generations
Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future ge ...
.
Preventable severe effects are projected to likely occur during the lifetime of the present adult population. Under current climate policy pledges, children born in 2020 (e.g. "
Generation Alpha
Generation Alpha (Gen Alpha for short) is the Western demographic cohort succeeding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early to mid 2010s as starting birth years and the mid 2020s as ending birth years. Named after the first ...
") will experience over their lifetimes, 2–7 times as many
heat wave
A heat wave, or heatwave, is a period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity, especially in oceanic climate countries. While definitions vary, a heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in the ...
s, as well as more of other
extreme weather
Extreme weather or extreme climate events includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a locat ...
events compared to people born in 1960. This, along with other projections, raises issues of
intergenerational equity
Intergenerational equity in economic, psychological, and sociological contexts, is the idea of fairness or justice between generations. The concept can be applied to fairness in dynamics between children, youth, adults, and seniors. It can al ...
as it was these generations (specific groups and individuals and their collective governance and perpetuated economics) who have been mainly responsible for the burden of climate change.
This illustrates the general fact that emissions produced by any given generation can lock-in damage for one or more future generations, making climate change progressively more threatening for the generations affected than for the generation responsible for the threats. Crucially, the climate system contains tipping points, such as the amount of deforestation of the Amazon that will launch the forest’s irreversible decline. A generation whose continued emissions drive the climate system past such significant tipping points inflicts severe injustice on multiple future generations.
Disproportionate impacts on disadvantaged groups
Disadvantaged groups will continue to be disproportionately impacted as climate change persists. These groups will be affected due to inequalities that are based on demographic characteristics such as differences in gender, race, ethnicity, age, and income.
Inequality
Inequality may refer to:
Economics
* Attention inequality, unequal distribution of attention across users, groups of people, issues in etc. in attention economy
* Economic inequality, difference in economic well-being between population groups
* ...
increases the exposure of disadvantaged groups to the harmful effects of climate change while also increasing their susceptibility to destruction caused by climate change.
The damage is worsened because disadvantaged groups are the last to receive
emergency relief
Emergency management or disaster management is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actuall ...
and are rarely included in the planning process at local, national and international levels for coping with the impacts of climate change.
Communities of color, women, indigenous groups, and people of low-income all face a larger vulnerability to climate change.
These groups will be disproportionately impacted due to heat waves, air quality, and extreme weather events. These groups will be disproportionately impacted due to heat waves, air quality, and extreme weather events.
Women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...
are also disadvantaged and will be affected by climate change differently than men.
This may impact the ability of minority groups to adapt unless steps are taken to provide these groups with more access to universal resources.
Indigenous groups are affected by the consequences of climate change even though they historically have contributed the least.
In addition, indigenous peoples are unjustifiably impacted due to their low income, and they continue to have fewer resources to cope with climate change.
The ability of populations to mitigate and adapt to the negative consequences of climate change are shaped by factors such as income, race, class, gender, capital and political representation.
Low income communities as well as colored communities possess little to no adaptive resources, making them particularly
vulnerable to climate change.
People living in poverty or in precarious circumstances tend to have neither the resources nor the insurance coverage necessary to recover from environmental disasters.
On top of that, such populations often receive an unequal share of disaster relief and recovery assistance.
Additionally, they generally have less say and involvement in decision-making, political, and legal processes that relate to climate change and the natural environment.
One way to achieve distributive climate justice in mitigating the disproportionate impact of climate change is through procedural climate justice involving disadvantaged groups in the planning and policymaking process. This would also help minority groups achieve more access to resources to adapt and plan for a changing climate.
Climate migrants
Responses to improve climate justice
Already in the present and based on existing laws, some relevant parties can be forced into action (to the degree of accountability, monitoring and
law enforcement
Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...
capacities and assessments of feasibility) by means of courts. In 2019, the
Supreme Court of the Netherlands confirmed that the government must cut carbon dioxide emissions further, as climate change threatens citizens' human rights.
Common principles of justice in burden-sharing
There are three common principles of justice in burden-sharing that can be used in decision-making related to who bears the larger burdens of climate change globally and domestically: a) those who most caused the problem, b) those who have the most burden-carrying ability and c) those who have benefited most from the activities that cause climate change. Another method of deciding starts from the objective of preventing climate change e.g. beyond 1.5 °C and from there reason back to who should do what. This makes use of the principles of justice in burden-sharing to maintain fairness.
One example of how the concept of climate justice is relevant to policies and society is
the problem of determining how fast a fossil fuel extraction phase out should be or how large the amount of unextractable fossil fuels in a country should be. Another example is the degree to which those who are considered to be main causes of the problem of climate change should be enabled and allowed to hold onto their wealth and powerfor instance, some of the fossil fuels companies that freely invest into renewable energies to slowly transform into renewable energy companies.
Litigation
Climate justice protests
Political approaches towards climate justice
The early 21st centuryparticularly the decade 2020 to 2030became the time in which both relatively large shares of populationsin and outside of formal
democracies
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose go ...
realized that urgent serious action towards climate change mitigationclimate justice for young and future generationsneed to be taken and which scientific research indicated to contain the last closing
window of opportunity
A window of opportunity (also called a margin of opportunity or critical window) is a period of time during which some action can be taken that will achieve a desired outcome. Once this period is over, or the "window is closed", the specified ...
for mitigating climate change to a manageable, potentially justifiable level. Scientific data indicates that, assuming 2021 emissions levels, humanity has a
carbon budget
A carbon budget is "the maximum amount of cumulative net global anthropogenic carbon dioxide () emissions that would result in limiting global warming to a given level with a given probability, taking into account the effect of other anthropogen ...
equivalent to 11 years of emissions left for limiting warming to 1.5 °C, although there are deep concerns over potential
tipping points that could be triggered even before that carbon budget is used up.
These are main
reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...
s why many scientists are calling for the
declaration
Declaration may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Declaration'' (book), a self-published electronic pamphlet by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri
* ''The Declaration'' (novel), a 2008 children's novel by Gemma Malley
Music ...
of and, critically, adequate action upon a state of "climate emergency".
Some of the relevant elite groupsparticularly
WTO
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation
in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...
,
IMF,
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
and
OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...
were found to have been incompetent or unwilling to solve climate change, making their rhetoric ultimately meaningless, partly by continuously including what some consider "globalism" and "ethics of growth" in their perpetuated
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
.
In terms of political approaches, some researchers identified a need for a participatory
deliberative democracy model of political decision-making in which voting-related decisions are not made via polarized opinions spurred via possibly imperfect media and education and immediate near-term impacts but gain their
legitimacy
Legitimacy, from the Latin ''legitimare'' meaning "to make lawful", may refer to:
* Legitimacy (criminal law)
* Legitimacy (family law)
* Legitimacy (political)
See also
* Bastard (law of England and Wales)
* Illegitimacy in fiction
* Legit (d ...
via authentic deliberation.
Citizens' juries could be "a deliberative democracy tool that allows a demographically representative sample of the population to learn about a contested issue from experts, and discuss, debate and develop policy recommendations".
A study found that fossil fuels, strengthening climate education and engagement, and disclosing greenhouse gas emissions information have "moral implications" and proposes social tipping elements (STEs) to be "subdomains of the planetary socioeconomic system where the required disruptive change may take place and lead to a sufficiently fast reduction in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions".
Human rights
Debates and issues
Fundamental differences in economic systems as a root cause
One contentious issue in debates about climate justice is whether fundamental differences in economic systems, such as
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
versus socialism, are the, or a, root cause of climate injustice. In this context, fundamental disagreements arise between, on the one hand, liberal and conservative environmental groups and, on the other, leftist and radical organizations. While the former often tend to blame the excesses of
neoliberalism
Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
for climate change and argue in favor of market-based reform within capitalism, the latter view capitalism with its exploitative traits as the underlying central issue. Other possible causal explanations include hierarchies based on the group differences and the nature of the fossil fuel regime itself.
Systemic causes
It has been argued that the unwarranted rate of climate change, along with its inequality of burdens, is a structural injustice. There is political responsibility for the maintenance and support of historically
constituted structural processes. This is despite assumed viable potential alternative models based on novel technologies and means. As a criterion for determining responsibility for climate change, individual causal contribution or capacity does not matter as much as the responsibility for the perpetuation of effectively
carbon-intensive structures, practices, and institutions. These structures constitute the global politico-economic system, rather than enabling
structural changes towards a
system
A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...
that does not naturally facilitate unsustainable exploitation of people and nature.
The study noted that the common demand by grassroots movements expressed in the slogan "system change not climate change" may correctly identify the scope of the challenge. While there may have been some cases of active prevention of transformative changes, responsibilities due to a lack of changes in policy may be more difficult to discern, with relevant domains possibly including
education policy
Education policy consists of the principles and policy decisions that influence the field of education, as well as the collection of laws and rules that govern the operation of education systems. Education governance may be shared between the local ...
,
media policy
Media policy / M. politics is a term describing all legislation and political action directed towards regulating the media, especially mass media, and the media industry. Those actions will usually be prompted by pressures from public opinion or f ...
, the selection of issues in political campaigns,
meta policy, changes to the
policy cycle
Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organ ...
and to what degree required unprofitable transformative work is enabled and facilitated instead of structurally inhibited. However, without discrete political goals and obligations such a root-cause determination of responsibility risks absolving individual responsibility within an
anonymous structure, especially as powerful political or corporate leaders have the ability to make certain pro-mitigation decisions even if they are not as rational, beneficial or effective as if the structural context would facilitate these decisions (e.g. for being the economically "most profitable" choice). Furthermore, such decisions by leaders may often be considered impossible or highly irrational by the respective parties partly due to a core principle of self-preservation (e.g. of a company, a political party in power or for a national economy) within the contemporary structures even when complemented with other relevant domestic or international policies.
For others, climate justice could be pursued through existing economic frameworks, global organizations and policy mechanisms. Therefore, for them the root-causes could be found in the causes that so far inhibited global implementation of measures like
emissions trading schemes, specifically of forms that deliver the assumed
mitigation
Mitigation is the reduction of something harmful or the reduction of its harmful effects. It may refer to measures taken to reduce the harmful effects of hazards that remain ''in potentia'', or to manage harmful incidents that have already occur ...
results.
Reduced efficiency
Some may see climate justice arguments for compensation by rich countries for disasters and similar problems in
developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
(as well as possibly domestically) as a way for "limitless liability" by which at least high levels of such could drain resources, efforts, focus and financial funds away from efficient preventive climate change mitigation towards e.g. immediate climate change relief compensations or less efficient intervention or climate-unrelated expenses of the receiving country or people.
Disruption of social stability, jobs and uncomfortable changes
Climate justice may often conflict with social stability whereby e.g. interventions that establish a more just pricing of products could facilitate social unrest and interventions of socioeconomic decarbonization could lead to, not only decreased e.g. material possessions, number of freely choosable options, comfort, maintained habits and salaries,
but also at least temporary increased unemployment rates which may be problematic with contemporary psychology (possibly including norms, expectations, conscience, pressures, feedbacks, bias, plasticity
and awareness) and socioeconomic structures (possibly including structural facilitation mechanisms for economic activities, enforceable policies, media systems and education apparatuses) even though multiple studies estimate that if a rapid transitions were to be implemented in certain ways the number of full-time jobs formally recognized in the economy could increase overallalbeit not addressing topics such as retrainingat least temporarily due to the increased demand for labor to e.g. build
public infrastructure
Public infrastructure is infrastructure owned or available for use by the public (represented by the government). It is distinguishable from generic or private infrastructure in terms of policy, financing, purpose, etc.
Public infrastructure is ...
and other "
green jobs" to build the renewable energy system. Even though accumulating evidence suggests that people who are living more environmentally friendly lifestyles are happier, according to a study "current strategies for encouraging lifestyle change aren't working". Many of the measures that could decrease social stability could also decrease public political support and political stability or make such more difficult to maintain.
Public political support
Due to mechanisms of politics and possibly partly due to an earlier neglection of enacting required policies and relevant education of citizens via education systems and media, the urgency for and extent of policies, especially when seeking to facilitate
lifestyle-changes and shifts on the scale of entire industries, could not only lead to social tension but also decrease levels of public support for political parties in power. For instance, in contemporary socioeconomic structures keeping gas prices low is often "really good for the poor and the middle class".
This may make it more difficult or less rational for political parties to enact such decisions across the world in cases where the national, rather than international, level is adequate. Citizens often form their
opinion
An opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive, rather than facts, which are true statements.
Definition
A given opinion may deal with subjective matters in which there is no conclusive finding, or it may deal with f ...
s based on peer opinions and media as well as according to their personal near-term interests. Endorsements of policieswhich historically have often been highly suboptimalthat come from an untrusted source may lower citizens' policy support and competing political campaigns and outreach, a key mechanism of politics, as well as
online misinformation may further exploit early public discontent with policies, especially when combined ubiquitously with other grave imperfections and ignorance of relevant political parties. The dilemma that links this problem to the concept of climate justice is that interestsin particular extrapolated interests based on scientific data and projectionsof hypothetical yet-unborn generations are not suitably represented and considered in today's climate policy-making, which is further complicated in that the already living young generations that will suffer most from climate change receive a politically equal voice and that large shares of voters generally do not have a good quality understanding of the projected likely effects of climate change and other relevant conditions. Public support could also be decreased by decisions for large financial transfers for the purpose of achieving climate justice, making this a challenging task including in cases where this money largely comes from taxing the general population rather than more select subgroups.
Perceived injustice, conflict and legitimacy
Perceived injustice is a frequent source of conflict, which, beyond being a source of socioeconomic instability, may additionally inhibit strategic, less subjective, constructive efforts and changes as well as decrease
public support for climate change mitigation measures, especially when considering the relatively low severity of effects to date. Perceived injustices may also challenge
legitimacies, including those in the future.
Conflicting interest-driven interpretations as barriers to agreements
Substantially different interpretations and perspectives, arising from different interests, needs, circumstances, expectations, considerations and histories, can lead to substantially varying conceptions of what is "fair". Such may lead to countries effectively making it more difficult to reach an agreement, similar to the
prisoner's dilemma
The Prisoner's Dilemma is an example of a game analyzed in game theory. It is also a thought experiment that challenges two completely rational agents to a dilemma: cooperate with their partner for mutual reward, or betray their partner ("defe ...
. Developing effective, legitimate, enforceable agreements could thereby be substantially complicated, especially if traditional ways or tools of policy-making are used, in-sum trusted third party expert authorities are absent and the scientific research base relevant for the decision-makingsuch as studies and data about the problem, potential mitigation measures and capacitiesis not robust. Fundamental fairness principles include or could be:
*Responsibility
*Capability and
*Rights (needs)
for which country characteristics can predict relative support. The shared problem-characteristics of climate change could incentivize developing countries to act in concert to deter developed countries from "passing their climate costs onto them" and thereby improve the global mitigation effectiveness to 1.5 °C.
Fossil-fuels dependent states
Fossil fuel phase out are projected to affect statesand their citizenswith large or central industries of fossil-fuels extractionincluding
OPEC
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC, ) is a cartel of countries. Founded on 14 September 1960 in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela), it has, since 1965, been headquart ...
statesdifferently than other nations. It was found that they have obstructed climate negotiations and it was argued that many of them have large amounts of wealth due to which they should not need to receive financial support from other countries but could implement adequate transitions on their own in terms of financial resources. A study found that governments of nations which have historically benefited from extraction should take the lead, with countries that have a high dependency on fossil fuels but low capacity for transition needing some support to follow. In particular, transitional impacts of a rapid phase out of extraction is thought to be better absorbed in diversified, wealthier economies which should bear discrepancies in costs needed for a "just transition" as they are most able to bear it and may have better capacities for enacting absorptive socioeconomic policies.
Less ambitious mitigation
While "climate justice" and justice in terms of climate change mitigation is mainly concerned with the procedural and distributive ethical dimensions of and for climate change mitigation, there are also concerns that climate justice could be used as an excuse or moral justification by developing, undeveloped or later-developed nations for less ambitious climate change mitigation goals as they have emitted less greenhouse gases in the past. Justifications of larger emissions with climate justice may also be obstructed in that e.g. the awareness of the greenhouse emission effects has increased, that the scientific consensus and data has grown to be more robust since the before the 1970s and that alternative options have become comparatively cheaper or have been developed further so that they are easier to adopt. Nevertheless, a philosopher remarked that China, currently the largest emitter of CO
2, used its emissions to basically lead "the biggest anti-
poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...
movement the world has ever seen", showing that degrees of emissions would need to be assessed for moral justifyability on a case-by-case basis.
Many developing countries find that climate justice demands that developing countries can
grow despite little carbon budgets, and, due to contemporary socioeconomic conditions, demand to receive the right to continue to emit carbon until a time later than net-zero-emissions-targets of many developed countries that have higher historic cumulative emissions per capita.
History
The concept of climate justice was deeply influential on
climate negotiations years before the term "climate justice" was regularly applied to the concept. In December 1990 the United Nations appointed an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to draft what became the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), adopted at the UN Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. As the name “Environment and Development” indicated, the fundamental goal was to coordinate action on climate change with action on
sustainable development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...
. It was impossible to draft the text of the FCCC without confronting central questions of climate justice concerning how to share the responsibilities of slowing climate change fairly between
developed nations
A developed country (or industrialized country, high-income country, more economically developed country (MEDC), advanced country) is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy and advanced technological infrastruct ...
and
developing nations
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
.
The issue of the fair terms for sharing responsibility was raised forcefully for the INC by statements about climate justice from developing countries. In response, the FCCC adopted the now-famous (and still-contentious) principles of climate justice embodied in Article 3.1: ''"The Parties should protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind, on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. Accordingly, the developed country Parties should take the lead in combating climate change and the adverse effects thereof."'' The first principle of climate justice embedded in Article 3.1 is that calculations of benefits (and burdens) must include not only those for the present generation but also those for
future generations
Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future ge ...
. The second is that responsibilities are "common but differentiated", that is, every country has some responsibilities, but equitable responsibilities are different for different types of countries. The third is that a crucial instance of different responsibilities is that in fairness developed countries' responsibilities must be greater. How much greater continues to be debated politically.
In 2000, at the same time as the
Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP 6), the first Climate Justice Summit took place in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
. This summit aimed to "affirm that climate change is a rights issue" and to "build alliances across states and borders" against climate change and in favor of sustainable development.
Subsequently, in August–September 2002, international environmental groups met in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
for the
Earth Summit
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992.
Earth Su ...
. At this summit, also known as Rio+10, as it took place ten years after the 1992
Earth Summit
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992.
Earth Su ...
, the Bali Principles of Climate Justice
were adopted.
In 2004, the Durban Group for Climate Justice was formed at an international meeting in
Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
, South Africa. Here representatives from
NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
s and peoples' movements discussed realistic policies for addressing climate change.
In 2007 at the
13th Conference of the Parties (COP 13) in Bali, the global coalition
Climate Justice Now!
Climate Justice Now! (CJN!) is a global coalition of networks and organizations campaigning for climate justice.
The coalition was founded at the 2007 UNFCCC meeting in Bali, and has since mobilised for UNFCCC meetings in Bangkok, Copenhagen an ...
was founded, and, in 2008, the
Global Humanitarian Forum
The Global Humanitarian Forum was a non-profit foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, active from 2007 to 2010. Presided over by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, its secretariat was established by Meinrad Studer, assigned by the SDC ...
focused on climate justice at its inaugural meeting in
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
.
In 2009, the
Climate Justice Action
Climate Justice Action (CJA) is transnational coalition of organizations that seeks to prevent climate change and achieve climate justice. CJA formed as part of the alternative mobilisation around the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference ...
Network was formed during the run-up to the
Copenhagen Summit
The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 and 18 December. The conference included the 15th session of the Conference of the Partie ...
. It proposed
civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...
and
direct action
Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...
during the summit, and many climate activists used the slogan 'system change not climate change'.
In April 2010, the
World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth took place in
Tiquipaya
Tiquipaya is a town in the Cochabamba Department in central Bolivia. It is the seat of the Tiquipaya Municipality, the third Municipalities of Bolivia, municipal section of the Quillacollo Province. It is known as the "city of flowers". The town h ...
, Bolivia. It was hosted by the government of Bolivia as a global gathering of civil society and governments. The conference published a "People's Agreement" calling, among other things, for greater climate justice.
In September 2013 the Climate Justice Dialogue convened by the
Mary Robinson
Mary Therese Winifred Robinson ( ga, Máire Mhic Róibín; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who was the 7th president of Ireland, serving from December 1990 to September 1997, the first woman to hold this office. Prior to her electi ...
Foundation and the
World Resources Institute
The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth. WRI's activities are focused on seven areas: food, fore ...
released their Declaration on Climate Justice in an appeal to those drafting the proposed agreement to be negotiated at
COP-21 in Paris in 2015.
In December 2018, the People's Demands for Climate Justice, signed by 292,000 individuals and 366 organizations, called upon government delegates at
COP24 to comply with a list of six climate justice demands. One of the demands was to "Ensure developed countries honor their “Fair Shares” for largely fueling this crisis."
Examples
Subsistence farmers in Latin America
Several studies that investigated the
impacts of climate change on agriculture in Latin America suggest that in the poorer countries of
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
, agriculture composes the most important economic sector and the primary form of sustenance for small farmers.
Maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
is the only grain still produced as a sustenance crop on small farms in Latin American nations.
The projected decrease of this grain and other crops can threaten the welfare and the economic development of subsistence communities in Latin America.
Food security is of particular concern to rural areas that have weak or non-existent food markets to rely on in the case food shortages.
In August 2019, Honduras declared a state of emergency when a drought caused the southern part of the country to lose 72% of its corn and 75% of its beans. Food security issues are expected to worsen across Central America due to climate change. It is predicted that by 2070, corn yields in Central America may fall by 10%, beans by 29%, and rice by 14%. With Central American crop consumption dominated by corn (70%), beans (25%), and rice (6%), the expected drop in staple crop yields could have devastating consequences.
The expected impacts of climate change on subsistence farmers in Latin America and other developing regions are unjust for two reasons.
First, subsistence farmers in developing countries, including those in Latin America are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change
Second, these nations were the least responsible for causing the problem of anthropogenic induced climate.
Disproportionate vulnerability to climate disasters is socially determined.
For example, socioeconomic and policy trends affecting smallholder and subsistence farmers limit their capacity to adapt to change.
A history of policies and economic dynamics has negatively impacted rural farmers.
During the 1950s and through the 1980s, high inflation and appreciated real exchange rates reduced the value of agricultural exports.
As a result, farmers in Latin America received lower prices for their products compared to world market prices.
Following these outcomes, Latin American policies and national crop programs aimed to stimulate agricultural intensification.
These national crop programs benefitted larger commercial farmers more. In the 1980s and 1990s low world market prices for cereals and livestock resulted in decreased agricultural growth and increased rural poverty.
Perceived vulnerability to climate change differs even within communities, as in the example of subsistence farmers in Calakmul, Mexico.
Adaptive planning is challenged by the difficulty of predicting local scale climate change impacts.
A crucial component to adaptation should include government efforts to lessen the effects of food shortages and famines.
Planning for equitable adaptation and agricultural sustainability will require the engagement of farmers in decision making processes.
Hurricane Katrina
![House crushed in Hurricane Katrina](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/House_crushed_in_Hurricane_Katrina.jpg)
Because of climate change,
tropical cyclones
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dependi ...
are expected to increase in
intensity and have increased rainfall, and have larger
storm surges, but there might be fewer of them globally. These changes are driven by rising sea temperatures and increased maximum water vapour content of the atmosphere as the air heats up.
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
in 2005 provided insights into how climate change disasters affect different people individually,
as it had a disproportionate effect on low-income and minority groups.
A study on the race and class dimensions of Hurricane Katrina suggests that those most vulnerable include poor, black, brown, elderly, sick, and homeless people.
Low-income and black communities had little resources and limited mobility to evacuate before the storm.
Also, after the hurricane, low-income communities were most affected by contamination,
and this was made worse by the fact that government relief measures failed to adequately assist those most at risk.
See also
References
Further reading
* Dolšak, Nives; Prakash, Aseem (2022).
Three Faces of Climate Justice. ''Annual Review of Political Science''. 25 (1): 283–301.
* Homeberg, Marc van den; McQuistan, Colin (2018).
Technology for Climate Justice: A Reporting Framework for Loss and Damage as Part of Key Global Agreements. ''Loss and Damage from Climate Change''. 513-545.
* Department of Economics and Social Affairs, UN (2017).
. ''Climate Change and Social Inequality''.
External links
In-depth Q&A: What is 'climate justice'?Carbon Brief, 2021.
{{Portal bar, Global warming, Law
Climate change and society
Climate change policy
Environmental ethics
.
Applied ethics
Social justice