“Climate Justice” is a term that emerged from the global South to challenge the dominance of mainstream white middle class narratives about climate change on the global stage, that are rooted in a very ecological and scientific understanding of the climate crisis, situated in the future, with solutions very much based around personal consumption, etc. (eg carbon emissions and footprint, fossil fuel consumption, renewable energy, and the shift to a battery powered consumption model, etc).
A Climate Justice perspective roots its thinking and analysis in social justice, recognising the climate crisis as a symptom of an exploitative and extractive system, and an ongoing social issue intersecting with all forms of systemic injustice.
Asad Rehman (Director of War on Want) talks to Sheila Menon about the real roots, values and visions of Climate Justice, and how to reclaim the narrative from the dominant Eurocentric climate movement.
*The term Global Majority was coined to break out of the colonial, white, Eurocentric perspective that constantly defines the rest of the world in opposition to itself, and minoritises the knowledge, experiences and ways of thinking of those it describes as “minorities”, even though they represent over 85% of the world’s population, from Asia to Africa, to indigenous peoples and their descendants.
This session is part of a day of talks and workshops exploring “Decolonial Perspectives on Climate Change” curated by Sheila Menon – what does it look and feel like when social injustice and systemic inequality is the starting place, when we think and talk about climate change?