What is Climate Justice?

Climate change affects us in different ways and to different degrees, which today means that there is an immense injustice to those who affect and are affected by climate change. From a climate justice perspective, we are living in a very unjust world, and proof of this is the rich population’s large negative impact that causes climate change and the world’s poor who are victims of the effects of these changes in our climate.

“Justice means all the generations living now have the right to a future life. That means those who are responsible for the emissions and the pollution have to take responsibility for the pollution.”

The rich part of our world is historically responsible for the emissions. In 2009 the 23 richest countries had produced 60% of the world’s carbon emissions since 1850. Still the countries responsible for the historical emissions are not paying their share to the Green Climate Fund that should help developing countries adapt to and mitigate climate change.

This great video on climate justice is from another climate event held in Ireland 2013.

The UNHCR predicts that many will have to leave their homes and search for a new home as climate refugees. At least 250 million people will be forced to leave their homes between now and 2050. An estimation also shows that 90% of all those killed – and 98% of those affected – by natural disasters live in Asia and Africa. Developing countries are most at risk because they lack the resources and capacity to prevent or mitigate the worst effects.

“People tend to focus on the here and now. The problem is that, once global warming is something that most people can feel in the course of their daily lives, it will be too late to prevent much larger, potentially catastrophic changes.”