ONE of the most hidden elements of climate change is climate justice. While climate action has become the most widely used or abused concept, it remains to be seen how climate actions are used to promote climate justice and protect the environment and biodiversity. Climate justice should be at the heart of climate action, environmental sustainability, transformation of societies and economies into strong institutions.
Peter Makwanya
The role of climate justice is to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change.
This includes increasing resilience, changing lives and situations, building informed communities, protecting them from environmental injustice and accelerating economic growth.
As the world embarks on various forms of climate action interventions, the question is how many stakeholders and participants make use of climate justice lens and participatory behaviours in their climate interventions.
Climate justice includes human rights, gender equality, social, economic and energy justice.
The aim of climate justice is to address the world inequality gaps. Climate justice is designed to uplift the spirit of the marginalised, seeking their reinforcement and motivation so that they are empowered to fight climate change.
Most unjust practices against the environment are designed to profit the corporate sector while hurting ordinary people in many ways that retard development.
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These are the unjust practices that drive people into poverty, biodiversity loss, hunger, social deprivation and poor health and well-being as a result of all carbon sins committed on the environment and not in line with climate justice.
Most climate action strategies around the world fall short of addressing the minimum net-zero emission requirements.
As long as disclosure of social and environmental information remains voluntary, companies will choose what to and not to disclose. Many environmental strategies by companies do not measure up to social expectations.
Many corporates with poor environmental performances tend not to report at all. As such, these behaviours and tendencies prevailing around the world promote systems and institutions that continue to commit carbon sins and environmental injustices.
This contributes to climate breakdown. In this regard, the world cannot realise net-zero emission reduction targets if there is no communication and engagement with local communities, businesses and partners, in order to maintain and foster just actions.
The systems, which have driven people into energy poverty continue disregarding climate justice. In this regard, fighting unjust environmental behaviour is not enough without fighting the systems which perpetuate these unjust practices.
Multimillion-dollar business ventures around the world, especially in developing countries and referred to as investments in mining and energy sectors, are causing ecological destruction, displacement of communities leaving them homeless.
This has also resulted in disrupting wildlife and its movements. They are complicating already dire and unjust situations.
Many food and energy production companies are not just as they disadvantage the poor because of the nature of their operations which have negative impacts on the environment. Poor communities have not realised the benefits of clean energy revolution as the renewable and clean energy technologies are expensive and beyond their reach, which in itself is not a form of climate justice.
This makes it difficult for the poor communities to stop using fossil fuel-based energy because they are cheaper and accessible. They continue to burn coal and kerosene for cooking, disregarding the dangers of inhaling the carbon.
Many communities in developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa encounter the grim reality of acute shortage and power cuts.
The majority always ask when their fair share of clean and sustainable energy will come their way. To them, clean energy, green and clean energy technologies are a mirage, only existing in newspapers, on televisions, radios, and perennially on the lips of politicians propagating climate falsehoods and false solutions.
The rate at which the extractive sectors are exploiting minerals in developing countries is contributing to environmental degradation and ecological collapse. The whole world is business-oriented and its desire is to make profit, hence money takes precedence over climate justice.
Natural resources, especially those in the extractive sector are not for the poor, but for the rich to pollute while sidelining and displacing the poor. If the poor demonstrate against displacement, environmental destruction, human rights abuses and carbon emission sins, they are deemed anti-development. In this regard, the poor are set against each other with some promoting the elite’s environmental injustices.
Environmental and climate change issues are both physical and social, hence there is no climate justice without social, environmental and gender justice. This is not to say all climate injustices are physical and environmental, some are also social, gender-based, and a result of lack of knowledge and information, among others but largely include unrepentant and well-established systems.
The major undoing in this scenario is that it is the systems which make climate decisions and policies, therefore, the systems cannot make policies which remove them from the gravy train, global control and influence. They would rather toy around with language, communication massaging or pretend and buy time to avoid conforming to climate justice requirements.
Poverty, lack of knowledge and information on climate justice issues lead to energy burden. As a result, systems continue to pay lip service to the implementation of just practices. What the whole world is witnessing at the moment are more announcements without climate actions.
The current global climate actions are not enough to achieve climate justice, deliver the poor from energy burden, biodiversity loss and reduce the gender inequality gaps caused by climate injustices. Climate justice cannot be realised when the world is moving in the wrong direction. Therefore, the right to live, work and play in a clean, safe and just environment is not yet guaranteed.
