Climate justice
Climate justice is a critical concept that addresses the intersection of climate change and social equity, emphasizing how global warming disproportionately impacts marginalized communities. It highlights that factors such as race, gender, ethnicity, age, and income significantly influence the experience of climate-related hardships, affecting both vulnerability and resilience. This movement has gained momentum since the 2010s, fueled by grassroots activism and events like the global youth climate strikes initiated by figures such as Greta Thunberg. Historically linked to environmental justice movements, climate justice seeks to advocate for equitable environmental policies and practices while focusing on the social ramifications of climate impacts.
Significant events, such as Hurricane Katrina, have illustrated the vulnerabilities faced by low-income populations during climate crises, revealing systemic inequities. Research has shown that disadvantaged groups, including minority communities and low-income families, bear the brunt of climate change effects, from health risks to economic instability. Legal actions, such as landmark cases against government agencies for failing to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, underscore the growing recognition of climate justice in environmental policy discussions. As climate change continues to challenge communities worldwide, the call for climate justice serves as a rallying point for those advocating for social, economic, and environmental equity.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Climate justice
Climate justice is a term used by environmental activists to raise awareness about the political and ethical implications of global warming. Climate change discussions often revolve around the physical damage occurring to the environment as a result of global warming. Climate justice highlights the impact that global warming has on society in general and how environmental changes can be detrimental to human rights. Disadvantaged communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change, with factors such as race, gender, ethnicity, age, and income determining the likelihood of exposure to climate change’s harmful effects as well as people’s ability to adapt to and recover from these effects. In framing the issue of global warming in this way, activists also aim to take legal action against injustices resulting from climate change. The demand for climate justice has steadily increased on a global scale throughout the 2010s. In 2018, a global student-led climate strike movement was inspired by Swedish student activist Greta Thunberg. The Youth Strike for Climate continued to raise awareness about climate change and injustices in the years to follow.
Background
Climate justice is similar to the concept of environmental justice, which focuses on ensuring that environmental laws and policies are fair and equally benefit all people. Environmental justice also examines environmental planning and sustainability efforts while ensuring that environmental laws are followed. Climate justice hones its focus on the social aspect of environmental decline and how global warming impacts human lives, referring to concepts of justice to support its arguments.
The environmental justice movement emerged in the 1960s alongside the civil rights movement but did not find its footing until the 1980s. One of the most famous early incidents related to the topic occurred in Warren County, North Carolina, in 1983. The county— mainly populated by poor, rural, black people—learned the state planned to place a toxic waste site in Warren. The people of Warren protested the waste site to no avail, but the event gained the attention of news media. A 1983 study by the General Accounting Office noted that three out of four hazardous waste sites in eight southeastern states were located in majority-black communities. The study also found a high correlation between impoverished regions and waste site locations.
A number of environmental justice groups emerged in the years to follow such as the Congressional Black Caucus and the Indigenous Environmental Network. These groups advocated for their right to basic necessities such as clean air and water, arguing in the name of public health. In 1992, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental Equity Workgroup released a report confirming what many environmental justice advocates had been saying: environmental risks impacted minority groups much more than other groups. The report noted that low-income and minority populations were disproportionately exposed to toxic materials and air pollutants as well as contaminated food and hazardous waste facilities. Experts noted the possible reasons for such disproportionality, including the lack of connection low-income and minority groups have to the people who make such decisions, unlike middle- to upper-class white communities.
Overview
By the twenty-first century, environmental activists were beginning to raise awareness about how climate change impacts communities disproportionately. A new term began to circulate: climate justice. Climate justice focused on the disparities observed in terms of the level of preparedness various communities have in regards to responding to the effects of climate change. One of the earliest high-profile events that raised awareness about climate justice was Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a storm that devastated large swaths of low-income areas in New Orleans, Louisiana. Many low-income areas lacked the resources to evacuate during the storm, and in the aftermath contamination and failed aid efforts left the most disadvantaged citizens in the lurch.
As concerns about global warming and climate change mounted, new efforts to highlight and address its impact emerged. In 2016, the US Global Change Research Program consisting of multiple government agencies including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and NASA released a report titled “The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment.” The report identified a lengthy list of populations that were most likely to bear the brunt of climate change’s impact. These groups include low-income families, minority communities, immigrants, indigenous peoples, children and pregnant women, the elderly, individuals with disabilities, and individuals with pre-existing or chronic medical conditions. These groups were more likely to feel the impact of climate-related stressors such as heat waves, droughts, hurricanes, and diseases transmitted by insects or parasites. Such groups were also more impacted by climate-change-driven issues such as food and water security.
Climate justice also highlights the impact climate change can have on economies, noting that industries that rely on regular weather patterns for production would likely suffer economic losses, and these losses would be felt most by disadvantaged populations. If climate change impacted the productivity of certain basic needs like food and water, this would interrupt the market’s supply-and-demand balance. Low-income communities already spend a higher percentage of their income on basic needs like food, shelter, and energy. A decrease in the availability of these essentials will make access even more difficult for these groups.
As climate change continues to impact various high-risk communities across the world, individuals and activists have begun using legal means to call attention to its harmful effects. One of the first high-profile American cases related to climate justice was the 2007 case Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency. Several states argued that the EPA failed to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that are damaging to the environment and public health, and the Supreme Court eventually ruled in their favor and required the EPA to regulate them. In 2018, a group of ten families from countries impacted by European Union (EU) greenhouse gas emissions filed a lawsuit against the EU for causing climate threats against their homes.
Bibliography
“Environmental & Climate Justice.” National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 2020, www.naacp.org/issues/environmental-justice/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2020.
“Families from 8 Countries Sue EU over Climate Change.” France 24, 24 May 2018, www.france24.com/en/20180524-families-8-countries-sue-eu-over-climate-change. Accessed 5 Feb. 2020.
Greenhouse, Linda. “Justices Say E.P.A. Has Power to Act on Harmful Gases.” New York Times, 2 Apr. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/washington/03scotus.html?ex=1333339200&en=e0d0a1497263d879&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink. Accessed 5 Feb. 2020.
“The Impact of Climate Change on Minorities and Indigenous Peoples.” Minority Rights Group International, minorityrights.org/wp-content/uploads/old-site-downloads/download-524-The-Impact-of-Climate-Change-on-Minorities-and-Indigenous-Peoples.pdf. Accessed 5 Feb. 2020.
Koch, Wendy. “Study: Climate Change Affects Those Least Responsible.” USA Today, 7 Mar. 2011, content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2011/03/climate-change-impact-injustice/1#.Vb53mXjSZek. Accessed 5 Feb. 2020.
Ospina, Christina. “Engaging in Climate Justice in the US to Protect and Empower Vulnerable Populations.” Climate Institute, 13 Sept. 2017, climate.org/engaging-in-climate-justice-in-the-us-to-protect-and-empower-vulnerable-populations/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2020.
Palmer, Brian. “The History of Environmental Justice in Five Minutes.” Natural Resources Defense Council, 18 May 2016, www.nrdc.org/stories/history-environmental-justice-five-minutes. Accessed 4 Feb. 2020.
Peach, J. Dexter. “Siting of Hazardous Waste Landfills and Their Correlation with Racial and Economic Status of Surrounding Communities.” US General Accounting Office, 1 June 1983, archive.gao.gov/d48t13/121648.pdf. Accessed 5 Feb. 2020.
Thomson, Jennifer. “A History of Climate Justice.” The Solutions Journal, Mar. 2014, www.thesolutionsjournal.com/article/a-history-of-climate-justice/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2020.