Introduction: Climate Justice in the Anthropocene (original) (raw)

From Environmental to Climate Justice: A Discourse with Special Reference to India

Jus Corpus Law Journal, 2022

Environmental justice is a key movement and organisational rhetoric in the field of environmental politics, and both the movement and the idea have had a significant impact on the understanding of climate change and climate justice. Climate change is threatening basic human rights for poor and vulnerable people. It makes it difficult for them to realize the right to water, food, and energy, thus worsening the basic condition of life. Gains in economic development will be unsustainable unless sufficient resources are directed toward effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions and responding to climate change. Climate justice acknowledges the development paradox that people who contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions will be the hardest hit by the effects of climate change. Climate justice aims to promote more equal burden distribution at the local, national, and global levels through proactive regulatory efforts and reactive legal remedies based on international human rights and domestic environmental justice ideas. The Indian judiciary, which is known for its liberal approach and ability to function as a ‘lever of transformation,’ is cautiously addressing climate-related cases. Hence, this paper presents an overview of the impact of environmental justice movements and concepts on the development of climate justice rhetoric, with special reference to India.

Discourses of Climate Justice: The Unsaid in the Noble Cause

Climate Prospects, 2022

One of the persistent claims among the diverse debates and struggles in climate change is climate justice. Although climate change is impacting the globe wholly, it does not impact all nations and groups equally. Not only that, but also the very contribution to the formation, increase, and continuity of greenhouse gases differs among countries, as not all states contribute equally to the global emissions of greenhouse gases. Even within states, claims of climate justice are raised by MAPA (Most Affected Peoples and Areas)1 as climate changes hit disproportionately across the unequal lines of income, social status, gender, and urbanity. An extra demand was introduced to the climate justice sophisticated dilemmas: the temporal/climate justice or intergenerational justice that considers the demands of youth and the fate of future generations. However, through these entangled lines of debates, the discourse of climate justice tends more and more to forget its main mission. It is to understand the needs of underdeveloped counties to develop and industrialise, and this requires slower paces for curbing climate changes unlike the developed world. Yet, the current global discourse on climate justice tends to ignore this demand and press more for a concerted global action using new and challenging claims for climate justice.

From the Problem of Environmental Justice to Climate Justice

Sustainability, Conservation and Ecology in Spatial Planning and Design, 2022

The concept of environmental justice, which was only in the discourse of indigenous and poor communities or marginalized groups until a short time ago, has turned into a global problem with the changing climate and is now being studied under the name of climate justice. Although it is expected that changing conditions, climate, people who hold power and wealth, wrong or incomplete policies applied, and sometimes even lack of politics, will affect all people equally in every corner of the world in the 21st century, it is clear that this is not the case. This injustice has become more visible in the right to be represented in decision-making processes, being the voice of neglected minority groups, system-based inequalities in social and economic fields, and intra- and inter-generational justice. The benefits and costs related to climate change (environmental degradation, drought, decrease in freshwater resources, health, etc.) are unevenly distributed. Climate justice, which is one of the pursuits of environmental justice, and issues that played an important role in shaping this movement are discussed in this report. Particularly in the environmental context, it should be taken into account that there is a clear injustice between groups that cannot be treated equally and equitably. Although the concepts of climate justice and environmental justice differ in terms of their origins, their scope and goals are similar. In this respect, both approaches to justice produce solutions to ensure sustainable social justice by protecting nature, climate, and people. These two concepts have been tried to be explained in line with their principles and scopes.

Agrarian climate justice: Imperative and opportunity

TNI working paper, 2018

The global land rush and mainstream climate change narratives have broadened the ranks of state and social actors concerned about land issues, while strengthening those opposed to social justice-oriented land policies. restitution, regeneration, and resistance-book-ended by the twin principles of 'maximum land size' ('size ceiling') global land rush amidst deepening climate change calls attention to the linkages especially between the pursuit of agrarian justice on the one hand and climate justice on the other. Here, the relationship is not without contradictions and warrants increased attention as both unit of analysis and object of action. Understanding and deepening agrarian justice imperatives in climate politics, and at the same time, understanding and deepening climate justice imperatives in agrarian politics, is needed more than ever in the ongoing pursuit of alternatives.

Is climate justice a socio-economic issue in India-a critique

Climate change is one of the most critical global challenges of our times. Recent events are the emphatical demonstrations of growing vulnerability to climate change. Climate justice recognizes the climate crisis as an environmental and socioeconomic issue. It acknowledges the crisis, injustice, oppression, and interconnected struggles faced by different categories of mankind and finds solutions for excess emissions, and creates a fair and more just world for the future. Irrespective of creatures' birth and living conditions on the earth all are equally affected by the climate crisis. Introduction: Indian Vedas compare the environment to a family tie, like "The sky as the father, earth as mother and the space as a kid" if any of these got disturbed the entire family will get disturbed. Same as the human family, if any of the environmental elements got disturbed entire globe faces deadly consequences like climate change, global warming, and so on… 1 When nature is destroyed the ecological balance and human survival are getting highly imbalanced. Here one of the main environmental imbalances is climate change. Since a few years ago, the human race on earth is enduring tremendous climate change. Many countries are facing a rise in climatic contradictions in air, water, and land such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, acid rains, rising sea levels, melting icebergs, tornados, and so on… Eventually, small interest groups and multiple actors realized the emerging need to fight for environmental crisis and place sustainable developmental goals for future generations.

CLIMATE JUSTICE: CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Denialism and Human Rights, 2019

Book chapter: Author of Chapter: ‘Climate Justice: Climate Change and Human Rights, in book: “Denialism and Human Rights”, by Roland Moerland, Hans Nelen (Eds), Cambridge University Press, 2017. ABSTRACT: The inadequate commitment of academia to Climate Change research, and the neglected, under-developed state of Climate Justice, must be addressed and counter-acted. The following paper aspires to pay a small contribution to that specific cause. This essay is based on the fact that Climate Change is undermining the fulfillment of internationally protected Human Rights, like the rights to health and life; the right to food, water, shelter, property; rights associated with livelihood and culture; with migration and resettlement; and with personal security in the event of conflict. The worst effects of Climate Change are principally felt by those whose rights protections are already insufficient. In this essay, I highlight these risks and advocate their consideration. Additionally I ask questions such as: What are the Human Rights repercussions of Climate Change, and how does the extensive organisation of international Human Rights law and knowledge, convey that phenomenon? Where does international Human Rights law overlap with or provoke duties under the embryonic Climate Justice regime? Where should Climate Change strategies challenge Human Rights essentials? My ambition is to clarify the confusion covering this area of study, and by examining the relationship between Climate Change and Human Rights, an attempt is made to discover, examine, and analyse their most essential links.

Climate Justice in a Climate Changed World

Planning Theory & Practice

Where I write from, in southeastern Australia on the lands of the Kulin nation, now called Melbourne, the stark and terrifying dimensions of injustice in a climate changed world feel very present. As this season's unprecedented bushfires in Australia took hold, we stared the new normal, of living in a climate changed world, in the face. It looked a lot like the dimensions of injustice that are already known all too well, but with much sharper and more concerning edges. Dimensions of climate injustice came into view that were perhaps previously hidden or obscured, the distributional aspects of effects and impacts so obviously burdening those already disadvantaged. Climate justice is a framework that brings into view the intersection between climate change and the way social inequalities are experienced as structural violence. Climate justice has grown in public debate and grassroots campaigning over the past decade, where not for profits and environmental NGOs in particular increasingly make the connection between human rights, uneven development and climate change. Often presented as a question of human rights, climate justice debates are often focused on the distributional effects of climate changepointing out that those effects disproportionately burden the poorest and least disadvantaged. Much discussion in the climate justice field has examined the global maldistribution of climate change impacts, particularly between developing and developed nations. Linked with the understanding that developed nations are the biggest producers of the emissions that induce climate change, the ways that privileged nations and groups redistribute the effects of the harms they produce to burden the poor somewhere else, becomes clear. In this Interface, we bring together scholars, educators, practitioners and activists to consider climate justice from a range of perspectives that extend and deepen these more established lines of thinking. The papers examine questions for planning that are perhaps less obvious or explicitly discussed in climate justice debates. The intention here is that these issues might become more prominent in our thinking and practice. Hence, the contributions interrogate issues such as planning education, the norms of the profession, the research that underpins knowledge about climate change, and the sharing of that knowledge as justice questions in and of themselves. The papers also focus on the principal dimensions of planning response and activity in relation to climate change, especially in key sectors such as housing, and also adaptation planning. Taken together, the papers reveal that how planning responses are framed, articulated and enacted is itself a live climate justice question. The contributions reveal the importance of ongoing efforts to

Climate Justice and Human Rights, in a World in Climate Emergency

Global Campus Policy Briefs, 2021

Dr. Zoi Aliozi, Global Campus of Human Rights, 2021. Abstract Climate justice is the blueprint for a fair and sustainable future of life on this planet. Climate justice can be understood as a lens for looking at climate change as a social, ethical and legal issue, rather than solely an environmental one. This frame of justice has in its core the protection of human rights and of the most vulnerable in a climate changed world. Climate justice should be seen as a flexible umbrella that is about ensuring that the process of implementing policies to tackle the anthropogenic harms of climate change is mirroring the rule of law and is developed on a rights-based approach. It is a matter of global justice with duties spreading from the international to the regional and national stakeholders. If the United Nations (UN) fails to promote climate justice, then we collectively fail to protect human rights and negligently violate the rights of future generations. This policy brief outlines the linkages of human rights and climate change, by advocating for climate justice. Climate change is undermining the fulfilment of internationally protected human rights, like the rights to health and life; the rights to food, water, shelter and property; rights associated with livelihood and culture; and with migration and resettlement. The worst effects of climate change are principally felt by those whose rights protections are already insufficient. The main message of this brief is intended to raise awareness about the climate emergency that our world is under, and to extend an urgent call for immediate climate action addressed to all stakeholders in the European Union (EU) and UN levels, including politicians, law and policy makers as well as to civil society. After three decades of negotiating about the reach and power of climate laws and policies, we have reached a point that the negative effects of climate change are directly harming human rights on a large scale. We need a global response with strong laws mirroring and integrating the human rights project in this process. This brief aims to expose the political negligence of power holders in mitigating the negative effects of climate change on our planet, human rights and humankind’s existence. Climate change is not only linked with the obvious human rights, like the right to a healthy environment or right to life; but climate change has become synonymous for climate emergency, and if this emergency is not mitigated by climate justice it will turn into the end of human rights. It is not rocket science to understand that in a world without a healthy environment, drinkable water and clean oxygen, no right to life or any human right can be truly enjoyed. Keywords climatic changes, human rights, justice, environmental law Citation Aliozi, Z. (2021). Climate Justice and Human Rights, in a World in Climate Emergency, Global Campus of Human Rights. https://doi.org/10.25330/1232 URI http://dx.doi.org/10.25330/1232 https://repository.gchumanrights.org/handle/20.500.11825/2340

Climate Change and Global Justice: New Problem, Old Paradigm?

Global Policy, 5, (1), 2014: 105-111

We are stuck with climate change. Without intending to do so, we have committed ourselves and our descendents to a world that is qualitatively different from the one that gave rise to humanity and all of its creations. The dusk has started to fall, and so the owl of Minerva can spread her wings and fly: we can now begin to seriously reflect on why the global effort to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change failed.

Climate Justice: If needed at all?

Empowerment through Law of the Common People (ELCOP), Sagorica Complex-B, Suite #1/South, 46, Mirpur Road, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh., 2013

The research finds out the effects of the concept “Climate Justice” which emerged to address the issues and concerns that arise from the intersection of climate change with race, poverty and pre-existing environmental risks. The analysis and discussions surrounds the climate negotiations, which needs an ethical base leading to emergence of climate justice. After determining the factors of vulnerability this research shows that the actual victims of climate change are the world’s poorest. It continues to discover the question about the necessity of climate justice. We will try to find the matter of hope which is lightening slowly like a “Firefly” showing how climate justice can actually prove to be an effective movement.