A social project for the European Union
26 November 2021
AOSIS in Glasgow: COP participation in a pandemic
7 December 2021
By Fatim Selina Diaby
This essay is one of the winners of the Fall 2021 Chair’s Essay Competition on the topic of: “What cause do you think Europe should mobilize around next?”
Climate and environmental change is one of the biggest challenges humanity faces nowadays.[1] Its devastating effects are experienced in multiple aspects of life around the globe. The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)[2] further highlights a need for action. It concludes that global warming can no longer be stopped but only managed; and that “without immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, it will be impossible to limit warming close to 1.5°C or even 2°C”.[3] The report also mirrors how calls for action frequently focus on the reduction of CO2 emissions as responses to climate and environmental change. Yet, this alone does not cover the reality of the global climate crisis. How consequences of climate and environmental change are experienced is conditioned by several factors like race, age, class, gender, citizenship, access to political decision-making, resources, and sexuality.[4] But aspects of injustice and inequality are frequently side-lined in the discussion on how to best respond to climate and environmental change.[5] This means leaving effects and root causes unaddressed and thus relying on an inconsistent approach. The concept of climate justice fills this gap while centring the needs, perspective, and participation of the ones most affected by climate and environmental change. In doing so, it provides several reasons why Europe in particular must tackle the issue of climate justice.
Not only does the climate crisis exacerbate existing social inequalities and vulnerabilities, but its most devastating consequences are also experienced by those who are the least responsible for its occurrence. Particularly people in the Global South[6], Black[7], Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPoC) [8], women, youth, people of low socio-economical class and those not complying with heteronormativity are disproportionately affected. This is also true for Europe where i.e. racialised communities are “overly exposed to and situated in polluted environments that significantly impact their health and wellbeing”.[9] While the European Union recognises such injustices experienced by marginalised communities and the exacerbation of existing vulnerability, it largely overlooks procedural dimension of justice in its climate policy.[10] This is of particular concern since the EU and its member countries are part of the actors most responsible for climate change[11] and, altogether, the biggest provider of climate finance to developing countries. [12]
If the European Union is truly committed to ‘a high level of environmental protection’, the ‘improvement of the quality of the environment’ and ‘sustainable development’, as per Article 37[13] of the Chart of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, climate, and environmental actions must be guided and informed through the premises of climate justice. First steps in that direction have been made through the agreement of establishing a legally binding rapid response mechanism for the protection of environmental activists under the Aarhus Convention.[14] The European Union and 46 countries of the pan-European region that are party to the Convention will appoint a special Rapporteur on environmental defenders. Not only do climate activists frequently experience insecurity, receive death threats or are murdered[15], but it was grass-root activism that elevated the issue of climate change and justice to national, regional and international political arenas.
Often the emergence of environmental justice movements is dated back to the late 1980s in the USA, intersecting with uprisings and the publication of a report that exposed disparities on how pollution and degradation is particularly experienced by minorities and low-income communities.[16] However, truly understanding the climate and environmental justice not solely as an outcome of CO2 emissions but as an issue of unequal global power relations and oppression locates its origin to imperialism and colonialism.[17] If so, then the first climate justice movements were anti-colonial struggles. With such an understanding, climate and environmental change discourses and actions that perpetuate injustice and inequality stand in direct relation to practices that aim to preserve white supremacy and leadership. This explains the (un)intentional and structural exclusion of climate justice actors such as Black women and girls and/or people from the Global South despite them being instrumental in elevating climate conversation to the mainstream.[18] For instance, media outlets cropped out the Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate twice. First in 2020 in a picture with white activists from the Global North[19], and more recently at the COP26. Both instances took place in political arenas that are still dominated by white, Global North perspectives. Such practices sustain the image of white people as climate saviours and erase Black, Indigenous and People of Colours’ contribution to counter climate and environmental change. Political and economic decision-making that could lead to sustainable and large-scale responses to the climate crisis is still dominated by those taking part in profiting of and causing the climate change in the first place.[20] This includes Europe. The representatives of nations and the European Union present at the G20 Summit in October 2021 are responsible for almost 80 percent of CO2 emissions. But concrete commitments for the fight against climate change or for climate justice are missing. The exclusion and absence of actors and practices for climate justice illustrate the necessity to dismantle structures and systems of which climate and environmental change stem from and are fostered.
The climate crisis and systems of exploitation and oppression are intertwined.[21] As a Union with (former) colonial and imperial countries in the centre of political and economic decision-making, this intersection is where Europe must find its responsibility to act. In the past, European colonisers used the construction of an imagined inferior nature in need of their control to justify the exploitation of natural resources and humans in colonized areas.[22] Violent land takeover of indigenous populations, labour exploitation, resource extraction and the transfer of wealth to the Global North have been key components of European colonialism. Capitalist economic systems in particular, deployed and fostered by Global North actors, manifested in over-production and over-consumption which impacted the increase of global economic inequality and furthered power imbalance in economic and political arenas. Those who benefitted of this were simultaneously the ones who established and sustain these systems.
The remedies of colonial practices are mirrored in extractive industries, largely benefitting transnational corporations, as well as in European policies aiming to protect the environment.[23] The EU’s self-proclaimed goal of becoming the first climate-neutral region in the world by 2050 has been criticised as a form of climate colonialism, given that the envisioned greener economy through renewable energy and electric mobility requires the extraction of resources in the Global South. This practice frequently intersects with human rights violations, lasting environmental damage, and dangerous working conditions.[24]
Addressing climate justice has to translate in taking the realities of injustices and inequities into account, including those that are committed to sustainable and green economic practices. The EU’s blueprint for climate action, the Green Deal, displays several shortcomings in that regard.[25] It ignores the role that the Global North continues to play as the main driver of climate change and environmental degradation – despite the engagement of European Governments and cooperation in economic and political activities – that lead to the destruction of the environment and exploitation of marginalized groups in both the Global North and Global South. Further, the Green Deal does not provide a framework for reconciliation and reparations to the damages which EU countries have caused both the environment and communities outside its borders. In addition, it seems to lack the ability to apply a wider understanding of the effects of climate change i.e., by not linking environmental damages to forced migration and the arrival of migrants at the continent’s frontiers, where border violence and illegal pushbacks await. [26] Ignoring the political dimension of climate and environmental change informs non-impactful climate action. In the worst case, this can result in unsustainable and contra-productive effects for marginalised communities in Europe and in the Global South.
Addressing the existential threat of climate and environmental change requires a system change.[27]A decolonial approach is necessary to detach global actions and thinking of processes adapted through colonialization. This implies the destruction of a capitalist economic system that puts capital and not humans in its core. Simultaneously, the political and social system that has been established in correspondence to it needs transformation. For now, the persisting global injustices and power imbalances build on the European colonial legacy require a consistent reaction from the ones benefitting of the climate crisis. Not including climate & environmental justice as demanded by Global South actors is a form of climate colonialism and won’t lead to necessary transformative change. But Europe’s organising for climate justice can. It could translate into adequately actions addressing climate change. This implies that Global North actors acknowledge their responsibility to the crisis’s creation and aggravation. In doing so the needs, participation and perceptive, of the Global South must be centred. In addition, it is of crucial importance to understand and reflect the interconnectedness of the climate and environmental urgency, global inequalities, COVID-19 responses, structural racism and discrimination. Each crisis is further exacerbating existing social, political and economic injustices and if such injustices are not adequality addressed and eradicated by its root causes; crisis are engaging in circles of incomprehensive and one-sided politics, approaches and solutions based on oppressive and colonial practices.
[1] United Nations (2021, February 23). Climate Change ‘Biggest Threat Modern Humans Have Ever Faced’, World-Renowned Naturalist Tells Security Council, Calls for Greater Global Cooperation. https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/sc14445.doc.htm
[2] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2021, August 9). ‘AR6 Climate Change 2021’ The Physical Science Basis. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/#SPM
[3] Plumer, Brad, Fountain, Henry (2021, August 9). ‘A Hotter Future is Certain, Climate Panel Warns’ But How Hot is Up to Us. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/climate/climate-change-report-ipcc-un.html
[4] Simmons, Daisy (2020). What is ‘climate justice?` Yale Climate Connections. https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/07/what-is-climate-justice/; Gaard, G. (2015, March). Ecofeminism and climate change. In Women’s Studies International Forum (Vol. 49, pp. 20-33). Pergamon, 23 f ; Andrew Baldwin (2012). ‘Orientalising environmental citizenship’ climate change, migration and the potentiality of race, Citizenship Studies, 16:5-6, 625-632. ; Malik, Laila (2019, October 3). We need an anti-colonial, intersectional climate justice movement. AWID. https://www.awid.org/news-and-analysis/we-need-anti-colonial-intersectional-feminist-climate-justice-movement
[5] Sandberg, L. A., & Sandberg, T. (Eds.). (2010). ‘Climate Change Who’s Carrying the Burden?’ the Chilly Climates of the Global Environment Dilemma (Vol. 3). Canadian Centre Policy Alternatives, 17-21. ; Gardiner, S. M. (2011). Climate justice. The Oxford handbook of climate change and society, 309-322.
[6] Eckstein, David, Künzel, Vera & Schäfer Laura (2021). Global Climate Risk Index 2021. Germanwatch e.V. Bonn, 5-15.
[7] The terms black and white are understood as socio-political categories that impact how an individual experiences systematic and everyday injustice and racism whereas only the former is negatively affected while the later benefits of racialised systems.
[8]The acronym BIPoC stands for Black, Indigenous and People of Color. It is an umbrella term that developed from the term PoC “often used outside of traditional academic circles, often infused by activist frameworks, but it slowly replacing terms such as racial and ethnic minorities” (Vidal Ortiz 2008: 1037). Vidal-Ortiz, Salvador 2008: People of Color. In: Richard T. Schaefer, Encyclopaedia of Race, Ethnicity and Society. California: Thousand Oaks, S. 1037 – 1039.
It recognizes that Black, Indigenous and People of Color are several impacted by systemic racial injustices but not necessarily to the same degrees. Clarke, Chevaz (2020, July 2). ‘BIPOC’ What does it mean and were does it come from? CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bipoc-meaning-where-does-it-come-from-2020-04-02/
[9] Equinox (2021, May). ‘Towards Climate Justice’ Rethinking the European Green Deal from a racial justice perspective. Brussels, 9. https://www.equinox-eu.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Towards-Climate-Justice-Equinox.pdf
[10] Von Lucke, Franziskus, Diez, Thomas, Aamodt, Solveig & Ahrens, Bettina (2021). ‚The EU and Global Climate Justice“ Normative Power Caught in Normative Battles. Routledge.
[11] Evans, Simon (2021, October 5). ‘Analysis’ Which countries are historically responsible for climate change. Carbon Brief. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-are-historically-responsible-for-climate-change
[12] European Commission. International climate finance. https://ec.europa.eu/clima/eu-action/international-action-climate-change/international-climate-finance_en
[13] European Union (2000). Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union. Official Journal of the European Communities. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/pdf/text_en.pdf
[14] United Nations (2021, 22 October). ‘Landmark decision’ gives legal teeth to protect environmental defenders. https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/10/1103792
[15] UNGA (2020, July 16). Situation of human rights defenders. A/75/165. https://undocs.org/en/A/75/165 ;
UNECE (2021, October 22). Rapid response mechanism to protect environmental defenders established under the Aarhus Convention. https://unece.org/climate-change/press/rapid-response-mechanism-protect-environmental-defenders-established-under
[16] Mascarenhas, M., Grattet, R., & Mege, K. (2021). Toxic waste and race in twenty-first century America: Neighborhood poverty and racial composition in the siting of hazardous waste facilities. Environment and Society, 12(1), 108-126.
[17] Kartal, Shaylı, Bechert, Laura & Dodo (2021) Kolonialismus & Klimakrise‘ Über 500 Jahre Widerstand. Bund Jugend.
[18] For a similar claim see Kelechi Okafor @kelechnekoff (2021, November 2). Black women and girls are constantly erased from mainstream narratives when most times they’re instrumental to those conversations getting as. “Tweet”, “Twitter”, https://twitter.com/kelechnekoff/status/1455473748958748675.
[19] Evelyn, Kenya (2020, January 29). ‘Like I wasn’t there’ climate activist Vanessa Nakate on being erased from a movement. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/29/vanessa-nakate-interview-climate-activism-cropped-photo-davos
[20] Euronews, AP (2021, November 1). ‘G20’ Leaders make mild pledges on carbon neutrality and coal financing as COP26 begins. Euronews. https://www.euronews.com/2021/10/31/g20-leaders-turn-to-climate-change-on-last-day-of-summit-as-focus-shifts-to-cop26
[21] Gonzalez, C. G. (2021). Racial capitalism, climate justice, and climate displacement. In Oñati Socio-Legal Series, symposium on Climate Justice in the Anthropocene (Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 108-147).
[22] Kartal, Shaylı, Bechert, Laura & Dodo (2021) Kolonialismus & Klimakrise‘ Über 500 Jahre Widerstand. Bund Jugend. https://www.bundjugend.de/wp-content/uploads/Kolonialismus-und-Klimakrise-Ueber-500-Jahre-Widerstand-11.pdf
[23] Acosta, A. (2013). ’Extractivism and neoextractivism’ two sides of the same curse. Beyond development: alternative visions from Latin America, 1, 61-86.
[24] OHCHR (2019, July 8). Resources extraction fuels rights violations and racial subordination – UN expert. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24801&LangID=E. ;
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre: Extractives & Transition Minerals. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/big-issues/natural-resources/extractives-transition-minerals/ ; Gouritin, Dr. Armelle (n.d.). ‘Extractivism and renewable energies’ human rights violations in the context of socio-environmental conflicts. Heinrich Böll Stiftung European Union. https://eu.boell.org/sites/default/files/extractivism_and_renewable_energies_hr_violations_in_the_context_of_socio_environmental_conflicts.pdf?dimension1=archive
[25] Douo, Myriam (2021, June 23). Climate colonialism and the EU’s Green Deal. Aljazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/6/23/the-eus-green-deal-could-propagate-climate-colonialism
[26] Gonzalez, C. G. (2021). Racial capitalism, climate justice, and climate displacement. In Oñati Socio-Legal Series, symposium on Climate Justice in the Anthropocene (Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 108-147).
[27] Kartal, Shaylı, Bechert, Laura & Dodo (2021) Kolonialismus & Klimakrise‘ Über 500 Jahre Widerstand. Bund Jugend. https://www.bundjugend.de/wp-content/uploads/Kolonialismus-und-Klimakrise-Ueber-500-Jahre-Widerstand-11.pdf