Climate Change and the Struggle for Climate Justice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.1111.16965Keywords:
Climate Change, Climate Justice, Disproportionate Climate Burden, Legal Principles of Climate Justice, Strategies of Climate Justice StruggleAbstract
Climate change is one of the greatest global challenges. The phenomenon and actions taken to address it have thrown up some contentious issues. One of such issues is climate justice. This paper analyses the bases for climate justice and the attempts at achieving it. The basic sources of data were the publications/documents of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Information was also obtained from the publications and websites of the climate negotiation blocs, such as G77 + China and Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), and several Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) such as Climate Action Network, Oxfam, GreenPeace and Third World Network. The climate justice struggle has been necessitated mainly by two driving forces. These are the experiences of the impact of climate change and the environmental legal principles that have emerged from environmental and climate change challenges. In spite of the fact that climate change and its impact are global, vulnerabilities vary across regions and socio-economic groups. The disproportionate impact of climate change is one of the drivers of the struggle for climate justice. The environmental/climatic legal principles that have formed bases for the climate justice struggle derive largely from UNFCCC, the Rio Declaration and the Paris Agreement. They are, to an extent, related to the Principle of Disproportionate Climate Burden. The principles include Common But Differentiated Responsibilities, Polluter Pays, No-Harm (to others) and Beneficiary Pays. Strategies employed in the struggle for climate justice include advocacy, focused negotiations at CoPs, protests/strikes, and litigation. Although, the developing countries have been the leaders in the struggle for climate justice, CSOs have been particularly prominent. The demand for increased financing of climate mitigation and adaptation has been characteristic. The struggle has resulted in more climate action. However, the ultimate focus must be the achievement of net zero emissions.
References
Ackerman E. (2009) Financing the Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Measures in Developing Measures in Developing Countries, G24 Discussion Paper No.57, United Nations, New York.
Allan J. et al. (2017) From Bali to Marrakech: A Decade of International Climate Negotiations, International Institute for Sustainable Development, New York.
Allen E. (2018) Climate Change and Disappearing Island States: Pursuing Remedial Territory. Brill Open Law, 2018: 1-23.
Allen M. R. et al. (2022) Net Zero: Science, Origins and Implications. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 47: 849 – 887. URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.1111.16965 55
Alves M.W.F. & Mariano E.B. (2018) Climate Justice and Human Development: A Systematic Literature Review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 202: 360-375.
AOSIS (2008) AOSIS Input into the Assembly Paper on Financing, AOSIS.
Beauregard C. et al. (2021) Climate Justice and Right-Based Litigation in a Post-Paris World. Climate Policy, 21: 652-665.
Berberian A.G. et al. (2022) Racial Disparities in Climate Change-Related Health Effects in the United States, Current Environmental Health Report, 9: 451-464.
Bhandary R.R., Gallagher K.S. & Zhang F. (2021) Climate Finance Policy in Practice: A Review of the Evidence. Climate Policy, 21: 529-545.
Biagini B. & Dobardzic S. (2011) Accessing Resources Under the Special Climate Change Fund. Global Environmental Facility.
Callian E. (2016) Loss and Damage: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Parties’ Positions in Climate Change Negotiations. Journal of Risk Research. DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2016.1240706
Calliari E., Serdeczny O. & Vanhala L. (2020) Making Sense of the Politics in the Climate Change Loss & Damage Debate. Global Environmental Change. Global Environmental Change. Global Environmental Change. DOI: 10.10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102133
Campbell J. & Warrick O. (2014) Climate Change and Migration Issues in the Pacific. Suva, Fiji: United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
CarbonBrief (2023) COP 28: Key Outcomes Agreed at the UN ClimateTalks in Dubai. Carbonbrief.org
Chaudhury A. (2020) Role of Intermediaries in Shaping Climate Finance in Developing Countries - Lessons from the Green Climate Fund. Sustainability, 12: 5507.
Chen K. et al. (2023) How Climate Movement Actions and News Media Frame Climate Change and Strike: Evidence from Analyzing Twitter and News Media Discourse from 2018 to 2021. International Journal of Press/Politics, 28: 384-413.
Chhetri R. P., Schafer L. & Watson C. (2021) Exploring Loss and Damage Finance and Its Place in the Global Stocktake IGST Discussion Series.
Chia J. (2021) Social Media and the Global Climate Strike: A Tool for Youth Climate Change Activists and Politicians. Sojourners, 18-39.
Chowdhury A. & Sundaram |J. K. (2022) The Climate Finance Conundrum. Development 65: 29 – 41
Cichoka B. & Mitchel I. (2022) Climate Finance Effectiveness: Six Challenging Trends. Policy Paper 281; Washington DC: Center for Global Development.
Climate & Clean Air Coalition (2023) SIDS and SLCPs: The Disproportionate Climate Risk Faced by Small Island Developing States. Nairobi: UNEP.
Colenbrander S., Dodman G. & Mitlin D. (2017) Using Climate Finance to Advance Climate Justice: The Politics and Practice of Channelling Resources to the Local Level. Climate Policy. DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2017.1388212.
Cordova T., Bravo J. & Acosta-Cordova J.M. (2022) Environmental Justice and the Alliance for a Just Transition: Grist for Climate Justice Planning. Journal of Planning Literature, 38: https://doi.org/10.1177/08854122221121120 56
Culloty E. et al. (2019) Climate Change in Irish Media. EPA Research Report, Environmental Protection Agency, Johnstown Castle, Westford.
De la Sierra L.S. (2018) Climate Change, Migration and Disappearing States: The Case of Pacific Island Countries, Policy Report, United Nations University. o
Dietz S. et al. (2018) The Economics of 1.5 C Climate Change. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 43: 455-480.
Dorkenoo K., Scown M. & Boyd E. (2022) A Critical Review of Disproportionality in Loss and Damage from Climate Change. WIREs Climate Change, 13(4): e770.
Drieschova A. (2021) The Social Media Revolution and Shifts in the Climate Change Discourse, Research Paper No.29, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
Elliott O. et al, (2023) Realizing Net Zero Emissions: Good Practices in Countries. Working Paper, World Resources Institute.
European Parliament Research Service (2023) International Climate Finance: Status Quo, Challenges and Policy Perspectives. European Union.
Fabel M. et al. (2023) The Power of Youth: Did the “Fridays for Future”, Climate Movement Trickle-Up to Influence Voters, Politicians, and the Media? CESIFO Working Paper.
Fair H. (2020) Their Sea of Islands? Pacific Climate Warriors, Ocean Identities, and World Engagement, Contemporary Pacific, 32: 341-369.
Falzon D. et al. (2023) Tactical Opposition: Obstructing Loss and Damage Finance in the United Nations Climate Negotiations. Global Environmental Politics. https//doi.org/10.1162/glep-a-00722
Fernandez-Zubieta et al. (2023) Digital Activism Masked - The Friday for Future Movement and the Global Day of Climate Action: Testing Social Function and Framing Typologies of Claims on Twitter. Social Sciences, 12: 676.
G77 and China (2002) G77 and China Statement for Opening plenary at COP 27; Sharm El Sheikh. Egypt.
Gallagher C. & Addison S. (2022) Financing Loss and Damage: Four Key Challenges. International Institute for Environment and Development Briefing.
Garrison J.A. (2017) Overcoming Obstacles in Global Climate Action From Copenhagen to Paris: Issue Framing as a Tool to Understand Opportunities for Policy Change. KFG Working Paper, Berlin.
Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (2023) COP 28 is Running Into Overtime, But Your Time is Up to Deliver Climate Justice. Statement by Climate Activists. Dubai, 12 December 2023.
Grosse C. (2019) Climate Justice Movement Building: Values and Cultures of Creation in Santa Barbara, California. Social Science, 8: 79.
Gulliver R.E., Vachette A. & Boddington S. (2023) How Australian Non-governmental Organisations Frame and Enact Climate Justice, Climate Action, 18: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-023-00049-2
Guzman S. et al., (2022). The State of Climate Finance in Africa: Climate Finance Needs of African Countries. Climate Policy Initiative, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.
Hale T. et al. (2022) Assessing the Rapidly Changing Landscape of Net Zero Targets. Climate Policy. 22: 18 – 29.
Hsu A. et al. (2021) Disproportionate Exposure to Urban Heat Island Intensity Across Major US Cities. Nature Communications, 12: 2721.
Hughes J.D. (2010) Climate Change: A History of Environmental Knowledge, in Capitalism, Nature, Socialism. DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2010.508619.
IEA (2021) Net Zero By 2050: A Road Map for the Global Energy Sector, IEA, Paris.
Ikporukpo C. (2022) Climate Justice: Whose Justice? Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9: 113-148.
Ikporukpo C. O. & Ikporukpo N. N. (2024) Loss and Damage Financing in the Climate Justice Debate. Advances in Social Science Research Journal. 11: 221 – 243.
Ikporukpo C.O. & Areola A.A. (2023) Rivers of Roads and Roads of Rivers: The Character and Impact of Two Great Floods in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Nigerian Field, 88: 6 – 30
Ikporukpo C.O. & Ikporukpo N.N. (2022) Spatial Hierarchy of Climate Injustice. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9: 354-370.
Independent Expert Group on Climate Finance (2020) Delivering on the $100 Billion Climate Finance Commitment and Transforming Climate Finance, United Nations.
India Climate Justice Forum (2002) Delhi Climate Justice Declaration. New Delhi, India.
India Climate Justice Forum (2002) Delhi Climate Justice Declaration. Delhi, India.
IPCC (2021) Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis (Summary for Policy Makers), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
IPCC (2021) Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Islam S.N. & Winkel J. (2017) Climate Change and Social Inequality. DESA Working Paper No.152.
Jackman J. (2024). The Race to Net Zero: Which Countries Will Get There First? London: Ecoexperts.
Jensen L. & Roniger J. (2023) International Climate Finance: Status Quo, Challenges and Policy Perspectives, Briefing, European Parliament.
Joshi N. (2023) Radical Movements as a Call to Climate Action: A Space-Time Connection. Climate Action, 2: 35.
Kamboh S.A. & Ittegaq M. (2022) Advocacy Journalism and Climate Justice in a Global Southern Country, School of Communication Studies, James Madison University, Faculty Scholarship, 6.
Kessler E. & Pizmony-Levy O. (2021) Global Climate Strike, September 24, 2021. Research Paper, Center for Sustainable Futures.
Khan M.R. (2015) Polluter Pays Principle: The Cardinal Instrument for Addressing Climate Change. Laws, 4: 638-653.
La Via Campesina (2018) La Via Campesina in Action for Climate Justice. Berlin: Heinrich Boll Foundation.
Larsen J. (2018) Disappearing Islands: A Climate Change Wake-up Call. Climate Change Unit, Population Connection.
LDCs (2008) LDCs Presentation on International Air Passenger Adaptation Levy, LDCs Bloc. 58
Le Treut H.R. et al. (2007) Historical Overview of Climate Change, in Solomon S. et al. (eds.) Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis (IPCC Publication), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Chapter 1, 95-127.
Maljean-Dubois S. (2021) The No-Harm Principle as the Foundation of International Climate Law in Mayer B. & Zahar A. (eds.) Debating Climate Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 15-28.
Marquardt J. (2020) Fridays for Future’s Disruptive Potential: An Inconvenient Youth Between Moderate and Radical Ideas. Frontiers in Communication, 5: 48.
Mary Robinson Foundation (2013) Declaration on Climate Justice. Mary Robinson Foundation.
Mayer B. (2016) The Relevance of the No-Harm Principle to Climate Change Laws and Politics. Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law, 19: 79-104.
McGowan A.H. (2024) The Climate March, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 66: 3-5.
Mohamed S.H.S. (2018) Climate Change: Social Media Influences and Public Awareness. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Innovations, 6: 36-42.
Mooseder A. et al. (2023) Social Media Logics and Visualizing Climate Change Images on Twitter. Social Media Society, January-March: 1-14.
Mungai E.W. (2021) Coverage of Climate Change Issues in Kenyan Print Media: A Case of Daily Nation and Standard Newspapers, MA Thesis, The Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya.
Newell P. (2022) Climate Justice. Journal of Peasant Studies, 49: 915-923.
OECD (2022) Aggregate Trends of Climate Finance Provided and Mobilized by Developed Countries in 2013 –2020: Climate Finance and the USD 100 Billion Goal. Paris: OECD.
Otto F., James R. & Allen M. (2016) The Science of Attributing Extreme Weather Events and Its Potential Contribution to Assessing Loss and Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts. Oxford: Environmental Change Institute.
Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (2010) African Climate Justice Manifesto. All Africa Conference of Churches.
Pichardo N.A. (1988) Resource Mobilization: An Analysis of Conflicting Theoretical Variations. The Sociological Quarterly, 29: 97-110.
Pickering J. & Barry C. (2012) On the Concept of Climate Debt: Its Moral and Political Value. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 15: 667-685.
Porta D.D. & Parks L. (2014) Framing Processes in the Climate Movement: From Climate Change to Climate Justice, in Dietz M. & Garrelts (eds.) Routledge Handbook of the Climate Change Movement, 19-30.
Potter L. et al. (2020) Climate Justice in a Climate Changed World. Planning Theory and Practice. 21: 293-321.
Pottier A. et al. (2017) A Survey of Global Climate Justice: From Negotiation Stance to Moral Stakers and Back. International Review of Environment and Resource Economics, 11: 1-53.
Pottier A. et al. (2017) A Survey of Global Climate Justice: From Negotiation Stances to Moral Stakes and Back. International Review of Environment and Resource Economics, 11: 1-53.
Qi J. & Qian H. (2023) Climate Finance at Crossroads: It is High Time to Use the Global Solution for Global Problems. Carbon Neutrality 2: 31.
Richardson J. et al., (2023) The Loss and Damage Finance Landscape Discussion Paper, Heinrich – Bell – Stiftung, Washington D.C.
Roht-Arriaza N. (2010) First, Do Not Harm, Human Rights and Effort to Combat Climate Change. Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law, 38: 593-612.
Schafer M.S. & Painter J. (2021) Climate Journalism in a Changing Media Ecosystem: Assessing the Production of Climate Change-related News Around the world. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change. 12(1): e675
Schafer M.S. & Schlichting I. (2014) Media Representation of Climate Change: A Meta-Analysis of the Research Field. Environmental Communication, 8: 142-160.
Shim D. (2023) Visualizing Climate Activism on Social Media: How Does Fridays for Future Germany Picture Climate Action? Working Paper No.33, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
Shteynberg E. et al. (2023) Unequal Burden: Exploring the Disproportionate Impacts of Climate Change on Marginalized Communities. Climate Equity Group Report 1, 01-39.
Sisco M.R. et al. (2021) Global Climate Marches Sharply Raise, Attention to Climate Change: Analysis of Climate Search Behavior in 46 Countries, Elsevier, New York.
Smiles T. & Edwards G.A.S. (2021) How Does Extinction Rebellion Engage with Climate Justice? A Case Study of XR Norwich. Local Environment, DOI: 10.1080/13549839.2021.1974367
Tabari H. (2020) Climate Change Impact on Flood and Extreme Precipitation Increases with Water Availability. Scientific Reports.10: 13768
Tamasiga P. et al., (2023) Is Africa Left Behind in the Global Climate Finance Architecture: Redefining Climate Vulnerability and Revamping the Climate Finance Landscape – A Comprehensive Review. Sustainability 15/10.3390/su151713036
Taylor L. & Elks S. (2021) Three Years of Greta Thunberg’s Activism: Still Time to Change Our Climate Future. Thomson Reuters Foundation News, 20 August 2021.
Thomas A. et al. (2020) Climate Change and Small Island Developing States, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 45: 1-27.
UNEP (2020) Global Climate Litigation Report: Status Review, UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya.
UNEP (2023a) Global Climate Litigation Report: 2023 Status Review, UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya.
UNEP (2023b) Adaptation Gap Report 2023. Nairobi: UNEP.
United Nations (1992a) United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UN.
United Nations (1992b) Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992), Annex 1, Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, UN.
United Nations (2009) Copenhagen Accord UNFCCC Secretariat.
United Nations (2015) Paris Agreement. New York: UN. 60
United Nations (2019) Pacific Island have Unique Moral Authority to Speak Out on Climate Change, Secretary General Emphasizes at Forum Leaders’ Meeting. Press Release, 15 May 2019.
Vanuatu (2022) Vanuatu Statement at UNFCCC COP 27 By His Excellency Nikenike Vurobaravu.
Venn A. (2021) Legal Claims for Reparation of Loss and Damage in Mayer B. & Zahar A. (eds.) Debating Climate Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 329-348.
Voelker J. et al. (2018) Assessing Vulnerability to Urban Heat: A Study of Disproportionate Heat Exposure and access to refuge by Socio-demographic Status in Portland, Oregon. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15: 640. th
Weart S.R. (2009) The Idea of Anthropogenic Global Climate Change in the 20 Century. Wiley International Reviews, 1: 67-81.
Wilson T. & Walton R. (2019) Extremism Rebellion: A Review of Ideology and Tactics, Policy Exchange, London.
World Economic Forum (2023) The Global Risks Report 2023, 18th Edition. Cologny/Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Chris O. Ikporukpo, Ninane Nina Ikporukpo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
