Contours of Climate Justice - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

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emerged as referring to the grassroots struggles of communities in the US and Canada who are fi ghting against the root causes of climate change in their own backyards/ frontyards. Put another way, Fenceline and Frontline communities fi ghting oil, coal, gas, tar sands, incineration, deforestation, etc. Only more recently have these folks emerged on the scene as part of the ‘climate’ issue. For example, communities fi ghting refi neries and power plants across the country as environmental justice struggles against point-source pollution have focused on health, poverty and environmental racism as the core themes of their struggles. Now, confronting the root causes of climate change has emerged as a critical, unifying theme. This started in the late 1990s, and really took hold after the 2nd People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington DC in 2002 (10 years after the 1992 Environmental Justice Leadership Summit). Examples are the struggle against ‘mountain top removal’ in Appalachia (the practice of blowing off entire mountaintops to reach underlying mineral deposits), coal mining on indigenous lands and tar sands development in Canada. These struggles have long been fought locally and are now fl ashpoints of climate justice as local fi ghts to address the root causes of climate change, while fi ghting for concrete improvements in the daily lives of communities. There is a strong focus here on accountability to communities and on communities speaking for themselves, while there has been less emphasis, until recently, on the questions of climate policy. Climate action as climate justice? Also developing more in recent years is the confl ation of climate justice with climate action. Some of this is emerging from mainstream environmental organisations and some from the youth climate movement. While we see lots of young people holding posters that say ‘Climate Justice’, we did not see a clear articulation of a justice/rights-based agenda on climate. In fact, many groups that are driving the youth climate movement support policies that run counter to the established principles of climate justice. We are seeing more and more of this use of the term by a broad range of groups who are now using direct action in some form or other to address climate change. There is, again, overlap. Many groups that are engaging in creative direct action or civil disobedience as part of their strategy are also advancing a rights-based framework, are supporting the leadership of those most directly impacted and are attacking the root causes of climate change. But many are not, and diff erentiating between the two becomes critical. One way to think of this is that climate action is not always action for climate justice. Depending on the theory of change and strategies you are employing, the action must either, and ideally in combination advance a rights-based agenda consistent with the frameworks established collectively by the international climate justice movement; take leadership from and be accountable to those most directly impacted and least responsible; or engage in community struggles on the root causes of climate change. The strongest movement for climate justice coming out of the US will be one where we have strategic alignment between these groups, and there are many organisations and networks that represent this alignment, particularly the Mobilization for Climate Justice, the Indigenous Environmental Network, the Environmental Justice and Contours of Climate Justice. Ideas for shaping new climate and energy politics 83
Climate Change Initiative and the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum on Climate Change, among others. We need a rights-based approach to climate policy led by directly impacted communities and grassroots organising that takes direct action in support of and with leadership from communities on the frontlines of the chain of production of climate change. As Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Indigenous Environmental Network observed in an interview with the author: In the US and across the globe, the movement for Climate Justice has been steadily growing, not simply demanding action on climate, but demanding rightsbased and justice-based action on climate that confronts false solutions, root causes of climate change and amplifi es the voices of those least responsible and most directly impacted. Not only are we the front-line of impacts, we are the front line of survival. As Indigenous Peoples, all of humanity is dependent on our traditional, sacred, evolved knowledge of Mother Earth. If we can create a people-powered, insideoutside approach both in the US and internationally, we have a chance for a just transition to a sustainable future. 84 Critical Currents no. 6 Literature Pellow, D.N., and L. Sun-Hee Park (2009, forthcoming), ‘From Climate Change and Climate Disruption to Climate Justice: Analysis and Policy Considerations for African American Communities’, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota.
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critical currents Dag Hammarskjöld
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The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation pa
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Photo: Dag Hammarskjöld Preface
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quote above by Albert Schweitzer ha
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Radical climate change politics in
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competitiveness and maintaining and
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the UNFCCC are today a greater thre
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Emancipatory demands and confl icts
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A feminist critique of the climate
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ment in Johannesburg (WSSD), where
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for strategic intervention is, ther
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compulsion to reproduce itself. As
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Kyoto’s ‘fl exible mechanisms
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new criteria of competitiveness, wh
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A reduction of absolute emissions i
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Page 35 and 36: Literature Altvater, E. (2008), ‘
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Page 47 and 48: REDD realities Simone Lovera Some s
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Contours of Climate Justice - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

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