Movements for global climate Justice: Reconsidering the international arena of climate change

Abstract

There is a clear inequality in the challenges posed by climate change: while climate change has been produced by the richest and most powerful countries, the poor and the more vulnerable populations are the ones suffering the most serious risks and consequences. Such inequality is at the basis of the so called “climate debt”. This has sparked international action for establishing response mechanisms to the possible impacts of the changing climate system.

This article is a critical analysis of climate debt and climate injustice, forged over more than twenty years of international climate negotiations. The goal is to show that climate change is not only a scientific or environmental issue, but also fundamentally a social issue, which affects human rights, gender equality and development. The article will describe how, in recent years, due to the inability or unwillingness of states to agree on solutions, civil society has become increasingly involved in the climate debate. It has done so through innovative solutions, always based on the defense of climate justice and human rights, for both present and future generations. The Urgenda case in the Netherlands and the cases brought to court by the organization Our Children Trust, in the United States, are just some representative cases of these demands by the civil society.

Despite mentioning only briefly the concept of climate justice, the Paris Agreement, adopted in December 12, 2015, sets a point of no return in the defenselessness situation that over two decades has created a geopolitics of the disrespect for sovereignty over natural resources, both inside and across national boundaries. Therefore, movements for climate justice are of particular interest to provide a different perspective of climate negotiations, based ultimately on human rights, dignity and equality. The change in Paris portends some hope in achieving climate justice.