Climate Justice

What is climate justice?

The climate is changing, human activities are contributing to this and the impacts are already being felt by people, plants and animals across the globe1 . However the impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed. The poorest countries and the most vulnerable people within them, particularly those whose economies are dependent on agriculture, will be most affected despite having contributed least to climate change. It is this unfair situation that has led to calls from NGOs and developing countries for climate justice. 

Justice is generally understood to mean that which is right, fair, appropriate or deserved, with justice being achieved when an unjust act is redressed. Within the context of climate change this means that the poorest countries and people should be supported by those who have contributed most to climate change. As a fairly new concept there are multiple definitions of climate justice. One that is used by the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice states that ‘climate justice links human rights and development to achieve a human-centered approach, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its resolution equitably and fairly’.

Principles of Climate Justice

Climate Justice links human rights and development to achieve a human-centred approach, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its resolution equitably and fairly. Climate justice is informed by science, responds to science and acknowledges the need for equitable stewardship of the world’s resources. In seeking through its mission to realise its vision of a world engaged in the delivery of climate justice, the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice dedicates itself to action which will be informed by the following core principles which it has elaborated.

How can climate justice be achieved?

Although the term climate justice has only recently been brought to general attention the underlying issues with which it is concerned (that is common but differentiated responsibilities for climate change and differential adaptive capacities amongst nation states to respond to climate change) have been identified in international agreements since 1992 through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change . The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change brings together international experts in fields related to climate change and its impacts and informs developments under the UNFCCC. 

Both the UNFCCC and the IPCC conclude that industrialized countries must first and foremost take domestic action against climate change and are obliged to assist developing countries in mitigating and adapting to climate change through capacity building and technology transfer. Following the arguments debated and discussed under the UNFCCC, climate justice is only likely to be achieved when industrialized countries;

i) reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, according to their common and differentiated responsibilities, to levels that will prevent dangerous human induced interference with the climate system 

ii) provide short- and long-term climate finance to help the most vulnerable countries adapt to climate impacts and pursue low carbon development strategies (a promise made at Copenhagen talks in 2009, and formalized in Cancun in 2010, states that wealthier nations will provide US$ 10 billion a year for the period 2010-2012 increasing to US$100 billion a year by 2020) 

iii)ensure capacity building and technology transfer (such as salt-resistant crops and clean energy solutions) to help the most vulnerable become more resilient to climate change and to benefit from green growth. 

For climate justice to work we need:

• Better ways of making decisions that include the voices of all those who are being affected by climate change (called ‘procedural justice’).
• To ensure that costs and benefits of meeting the challenge of climate change are spread out fairly according to responsibility and ability (called ‘distributional justice’).
• To think about how the needs of future generations and non-human beings, those who do not have a voice in current decisions, can be better considered in our decision-making (called ‘just sustainability’).

Recommendations that are politically palatable and can help achieve climatic justice

• Reinforce human rights: It has been clear for a long time that climate change harms human rights. What has been less clear is whether courts can apply existing law and legal precedent to cover these violations. After all, the law was developed without the enormity and urgency of climate change in view. But, like other human rights harms, climate change has agents, victims and injuries. It does not require much legal imagination to make the causal connection. Politicians, lawyers and the international community can help by making the connection clear.

• Hold corporations to account: At present, multinational corporations can escape carbon accountability in much the same way as they have often escaped responsibility for human rights violations caused by subsidiaries and suppliers abroad. As with human rights, what is needed is simple due diligence. The point must be to ensure that carbon emissions are counted right along the international supply chain, from sourcing to production to distribution to point of sale. 

• Recognize climate change victims: We need to recognize that climate change has victims and give them a day in court. The report proposes that states adopt a “model statute on legal remedies for climate change” that can open doors to those directly affected by climate change. This is largely a matter of clarifying procedural rules. As a next step, the IBA has already embarked on drafting a model statute of this kind.

Climate risk vulnerability and justice

Climate change makes population, and weaker demographics within, vulnerable to economic and health risks. Various coordinates or ‘locations’ such as socioeconomic (poverty, caste and gender), demographic (weak and ageing vote banks), geographic (coastal/tidal) and personal (disability) intersect to make people vulnerable to climate change-induced consequences. These consequences and risks will continue to concentrate on low-income groups residing along the coastlines. These areas have a high prevalence of climate-sensitive diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea and malnutrition.

Environmental Justice (EJ) encompasses a framework to analyze climate-related problems. This framework initially emerged in the US context, questioning race, ethnicity and their relationship dealing with burdens of environmental pollution and risk associated with technological advancement. The idea of climate justice later emerged from the environmental justice discourse.

Two important aspects of climate justice include procedural justice and distributional justice. Procedural justice ensures democratic decision making that include the voice of all those who are affected by climate change. Kerala has an excellent procedural justice record, thanks to its strong local governance institutions. Distributional justice ensures the costs and benefits of addressing the challenge of climate change are distributed equally and fairly based on responsibility and ability.

Kerala has political leeway to disaggregate climate change impacts and include distributive justice in its policies. However, nationally, current institutional mechanisms or governance structures are insufficient for addressing the problems of climate-vulnerable societies and ensure justice. The state, in general, “refuses to accept liabilities for the environmental consequences of its destructive economy“. For instance, post-2018 flood, inhabitants in Eloor were at the risk of severe pollution due to the density of chemical companies in the area. The local community demanded studies on the presence of hazardous chemicals in the water and land. However, the government has not initiated any study to ameliorate their concerns.

The current global pandemic offers both a ‘disruptive’ and ‘reflective’ opportunity for research and policy work around climate risks and justice. As India’s seashores are facing SLR and floods, the disproportionate distribution of climate risk needs to be explored. We urge researchers, activists and policy experts to come together in an interdisciplinary spirit and pay attention to the existing patterns and intersections of social and spatial inequalities.

Incorporating justice question in the climate crisis will help create a better future for generations to come and equip the society better to handle environmental risks including pandemics and climate change.