Climate Justice, Type, Importance and Challenges

Context: President Droupadi Murmu during her address to the Fijian parliament said that India will push the developed countries for climate justice for Fiji and other ocean states.

About Climate Justice

• Climate justice frames global warming as an ethical and political issue rather than purely environmental or physical.
• It recognizes that climate change affects underprivileged populations differently in terms of social, economic, public health, and other adverse impacts.
• The effects of climate change, such as extreme weather and rising sea levels, are not borne equally or fairly across different socioeconomic groups, genders, and generations.
• Historically marginalised or underserved communities often experience disproportionate effects of climate change.
• Pursuing climate justice involves addressing interconnected social, gender, economic, intergenerational, and environmental injustices.
• Some climate projects can unintentionally create injustices, such as displacing local communities for conservation or renewable energy initiatives.
• Advocates for climate justice seek to address these inequities through long-term mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Types of Justice under Climate Justice

• Procedural Climate Justice: Ensures fair, accountable, and transparent decision-making about climate change effects and solutions. It involves public participation, access to information, and unbiased decision-makers, promoting transparency, fair representation, impartiality, and objectivity.
• Distributive Climate Justice: Focuses on how the costs and benefits of climate change are shared. It involves:
  • Identifying what goods are being distributed (e.g., food, water, power).
  • Determining who will receive these goods (e.g., certain communities, generations).
  • Choosing the fairest method of distribution (e.g., based on need, merit, rights).
• Recognition Climate Justice: Emphasises recognizing and addressing the differences and vulnerabilities of people, particularly those who may be more affected by low-carbon transitions. It focuses on protecting equal rights and understanding diverse needs and capacities.
• Intergenerational Climate Justice: Highlights the importance of meeting current needs without compromising future generations’ ability to meet theirs. This concept was first recognized in the Brundtland Report ‘Our Common Future’ (1987).

Importance of Climate Justice

• Human Rights Issue: Climate change affects human rights, threatening the ability of all people to live with dignity.
  • The climate crisis results in loss of lives, livelihoods, language, and culture, risking food and water shortages, and triggering displacement and conflict.
• Health Impacts: The climate crisis impedes the right to good health.
  • Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and pollution cause health issues such as heat stress, disease outbreaks, malnutrition, and trauma from disasters.
• Vulnerable Populations: Vulnerable populations, with limited means to adapt, face more severe impacts.
  • Between 2010 and 2020, mortality from floods, droughts, and storms was 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions compared to regions with low vulnerability.
• Education System Impacts: High temperatures and extreme weather can damage educational infrastructure.
  • Disruptions threaten parents’ ability to send children to school, impacting future generations’ education and opportunities.
• Just Transition: Climate justice is crucial for a just transition to a sustainable future.
  • Protecting and consulting local communities, especially informal workers and marginalised populations, is necessary to avoid harm during this transition.
  • Concerns include human rights violations related to mining for minerals needed for electric vehicle batteries.
• Disproportionate Impact: Those who have least contributed to the climate crisis are disproportionately affected.
  • Responsibilities for addressing climate change should be aligned with the level of contribution to the problem.
  • Addressing systemic, socioeconomic, and intergenerational inequalities is essential.

Challenges in Ensuring Climate Justice

• Gradual Dilution of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR): Article 3 of the UNFCCC acknowledges CBDR based on differences between developed and developing countries’ circumstances and historical contributions.
  • Developed countries push for higher commitments from developing countries, e.g., advocating for a coal “phase-out” at Glasgow 2021 (later agreed to “phase-down”).
  • Phasing out coal imposes significant costs on developing countries due to its status as a cheap energy source.
• Avoidance of Binding Targets: Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement are voluntary and not legally binding.
  • The Kyoto Protocol had binding targets for developed countries, but it has become non-functional.
  • Developed countries avoid binding targets, reneging on their historical responsibilities.
• Shortfall in Climate Finance: Developed countries have not met the pledge of providing US$ 100 billion per year for Climate Finance.
  • Experts argue that US$ 100 billion per year is insufficient to address climate change.
  • IPCC estimates that US$ 1.6–3.8 trillion annually is needed to prevent warming exceeding 1.5°C.

Suggestions for Ensuring Climate Justice

• Predictable and Assured Climate Finance: Address intragenerational equity through predictable and assured climate finance.
  • Establish binding targets for developed countries to fund vulnerable countries, proportionate to their historical contributions.
• Augmenting Climate Finance with Technology Transfer: Increase climate finance by transferring technology to developing nations.
  • Accelerate the transition to low-carbon economies in developing countries.
• Mainstreaming Climate Justice into Disaster Relief: Recognize that climate-induced disasters may become the norm.
  • Integrate climate justice concerns into disaster relief efforts.
  • Ensure the Loss and Damage Fund provides unconditional relief based on climate justice principles.
• Binding Emission Reduction Targets for Developed Countries: Developed countries should acknowledge their historical responsibility and commit to binding emission reduction targets.
• Intragenerational Equity within Developing Countries: Developing countries should focus on ensuring intragenerational equity within their societies.
  • Promote climate education and engagement initiatives.

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