Climate Justice Movements

Climate justice movements are grassroots initiatives that seek to mobilize governments and the public to tackle the climate crisis. These social movement groups argue that human rights encompass people’s rights to a clean environment while advocating for the inclusive participation of marginalized communities in the United Nations climate negotiation process. These grassroots environmental groups comprise an emerging global movement for climate justice, an intricate web of grassroots initiatives from regions across the globe addressing the socio-economic implications of global climate change.

These grassroots groups are self-organized and define themselves as “economically marginalized”, “disadvantaged” or “poor.” The livelihoods of many of the group’s members are highly dependent upon climate sensitive sectors for their survival, such as farming, forestry, and fisheries. Others are union members seeking alternative employment opportunities within a growing green economy or young people concerned for their future.

Local struggles for climate justice connect at the international level with the shared understanding that in addition to accelerating environmental degradation and species loss, global climate change will jeopardize human rights and socio-economic inequities. According to a recent report by the United Nations Development Program, climate change is “intensifying the risks and vulnerabilities facing poor peoples, placing further stress on already over-stretched coping mechanisms.” ¹

Climate Justice Summit

In 2000, the first-ever Climate Justice Summit took place in the Hague, the Netherlands parallel to the Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP-6) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where over 500 grassroots leaders from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and North America gathered to build bridges across borders and thematic issues. Here, regional and international networks merged, building the foundation of a global grassroots movement to tackle climate change. Members of international coalitions such as the Indigenous Environmental Network, the World Rainforest Movement, Oilwatch International, and Friends of the Earth International joined to craft the climate justice movement’s initial guiding principles, organize side events, cultural activities, and mass mobilizations. “We affirm that climate change is a rights issue. It affects our livelihoods, our health, our children and our natural resources. We will build alliances across states and borders to oppose climate change inducing patterns and advocate for and practice sustainable development,” proclaimed the Climate Summit’s mission. ²

In addition, individual international coalitions presented declarations with proposals tailored to their specific issues of concern. Indigenous groups collaborated on the ‘Declaration of the First International Forum of Indigenous People’s on Climate Change,’ calling for the creation of an adaptation fund with financing allocated for indigenous groups and the inclusion of indigenous peoples in all levels of decision-making within the UNFCCC process. ³ The World Rainforest Movement drew up the ‘Mount Tamalpais Declaration,’ demanding deep greenhouse gas emissions cuts and an end to the inclusion of tree plantations as “sinks” within the clean development mechanism. ⁴According to the declaration, “licensing the burning of fossil fuels by financing tree plantations to “absorb” carbon dioxide would expand the ecological and social footprint of the rich, making existing social inequalities worse.” As an alternative strategy, the declaration recommended that local communities manage forest ecosystems. ⁵

Emergence of a global movement

The global climate justice movement has since grown. At the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP 13) in Bali, Indonesia a diverse spectrum of social movement groups engaged in parallel street demonstrations, press conferences and educational side events. An Asian Young Leaders Climate Forum brought together 34 young leaders from 14 Asian nations, who developed and presented a regional climate action plan at the official conference proceedings. Farmers from around the world filled the streets with bright and colorful banners, calling for small-scale, sustainable agriculture as an alternative to industrial farming. “Sustainable agriculture will cool the earth!” the farmers cried. Oilwatch activists demanded the redirection of fossil fuel energy financing towards emissions mitigation and clean renewable energy technologies. These groups formed the Climate Justice Now! coalition, demanding that industrialized nations implement drastic emissions, increase financing to support adaptation programs in the developing world, and support rights-based conservation programs that promote community control over energy, forests and water. ⁶

Assessing the movement

Assessing the impact of climate justice movements on domestic and international climate governance can be challenging as these movements tend to participate outside of climate conventions, have no voting authority within official negotiations, and often use international conferences as an opportunity to strengthen their agendas through networking and alliance building. The movement’s overarching principles, calling for climate equity, inclusive participation, and human rights, have yet to be a defining factor in the arena of global policy-making on climate change. In fact, to date, the UNFCCC makes no mention of human rights. ⁷

It is in the activities of non-governmental organizations and intergovernmental institutions such as the United Nations where we see the key principles of the climate justice movement emerge. International humanitarian organizations such as Action Aid, Christian Aid, Oxfam and Tearfund, have all developed climate campaigns based upon equity and human rights, often acting as a bridge between underrepresented communities and official policy-makers. The United Nations is increasingly integrating the concerns of marginalized groups such as indigenous peoples into its program work on climate change. According to a recent UN report “the proposals of indigenous communities to integrate their social, political, cultural, and economic rights and their aspirations into future development strategies must be considered so that the challenges they are facing are fully addressed, respect for their rights and cultures is ensured, and their survival and well-being is protected.” ⁸ And the World Bank has just initiated a program on human rights and climate change, with a focus on developing policies and procedures that build resilience to climate change and reduce vulnerability by using a rights-based approach. ⁹

Moreover, climate justice movements collaborate closely with non-governmental organizations who in turn incorporate the movement’s principles into NGO proposals which are submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Tearfund, for example, has submitted a proposal on disaster risk reduction focused on inclusive community participation within the context of adaptation planning. ¹⁰ The Global Forest Coalition has presented a proposal addressing the need to involve indigenous peoples in programs for policy-making to reduce emissions from deforestation in developing countries (REDD). ¹¹ And the International Trade Union Confederation has submitted a proposal advocating for governments to transition to a low carbon economy while simultaneously generating employment opportunities. The proposal also introduces adaptation programs as a source of employment opportunities and for generating and improving worker income. ¹² While members of marginalized communities may not participate in international climate negotiations at the official level, they have succeeded in making their voices heard by influencing more established non-governmental organizations who play an important role in global climate politics.

Footnotes

¹ United Nations Development Program. “The Other Half of Climate Change: Why Indonesia Must Adaot to Protect its Poorest People.” November 26, 2007.

² Karliner, Joshua. “Climate Justice Summit Provides Alternative Vision.” November 21, 2000 at <www.corpwatch.org>

³ ² International Indian Treaty Council. “Declaration of the First International Forum of Indigenous People’s on Climate Change. Lyon, France. September 4-6, 2000.

⁴ ³: World Rainforest Movement. “Mount Tamalpais Declaration.” San Francisco, California. May 2000.

⁵: “Mount Tamalpais Declaration on Climate and Forests” May 1, 2000. CorpWatch.

⁶ Friends of the Earth International. “What’s Missing from the Climate Talks?"Press Release. December 14, 2007.

⁷ ⁴ Taillant, Jorge Daniel. “Human Rights, Development, and Climate Change Negotiations: Why a Structural Shift in Negotiations towards Adaptation and Mitigation Makes Sense,” November 13, 2007.

⁸ United Nations Development Group Guidelines on Indigenous People’s Issues. February 2008.

⁹ Correspondence withEdward Cameron. Director of the Human Rights and Climate Change Program. August 22, 2008.

¹⁰ Tearfund Submission on the Bali Action Plan- The Role of Disaster Risk Reduction in Adaptation. July 21, 2008.

¹¹ Global Forest Coalition. ‘Effective Policies to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) must Address Leakage and Incorporate Social Impact Criteria.’ Submission to the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. March 20, 2008.

¹² International Trade Union Confederation.Submission to the UNFCCC by the International Trade Union Confederation. February 22, 2008.

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