Action for Climate Justice? Which way?
Tuesday,29 September 2009 by Nishma
The mass famine and drought in East Africa has affected me in ways that have truly made me think about what the whole climate change problem is all about. I suppose thinking about it and really writing it down can be difficult to transfer, so I apologise if much of this fails to make any sense.
The problem with climate change campaigns is that their focus seems to be on the small scale initiatives to see whether a product is ethical or not, rather than the grand-scale problem that is actually creating the problem itself. Climate change isn’t merely a matter of environmental justice, but largely due to social and economic injustice which fuels debates in the UN and elsewhere. In continuing to only regard the campaign to tackle change as either a problem which can be alleviated by economic funding after a climate catastrophe (as argued by many development agencies in their understanding of Climate Justice campa
igns) as well as continuing to believe that we need to ‘crush the system’ to create climate equity, we are not discussing realistic procedures to protect people from the worst effects of climate change but trying to appease them in pretending to actually be doing something.
Climate Justice, the subject much covered in recent development charity campaigns and a favourite subject amongst Climate Campers, is the belief that those who contributed most to climate change (historically, the most carbon intensive) should be those who should be most responsible for its consequences. How it should be responsible, however, remains under debate. The argument stands at creating an opportunity for nations to apply for these grants should their country face a climate catastrophe, all of which is provided by high carbon nations. The stipend, however, does not protect lives or prevent any suffering. That’s where Climate Camp comes along and plans to shut down the talks at Copenhagen this December and host their own - these would include speakers from minority groups in the ‘Global South’. Once again, this does not cover a reasonable method of international adaptation or compensation to deal with all catastrophies.
So what then is the solution to climate justice? My mind spins back to this idea of responsibility, and concerns over environmental justice. I am not an environmental determinist in the least - in fact my argument would be that people engage with their environment and are quick to adapt to it. However, the links that the environment has with society is unlimited, and to argue that they are unrelated seems utterly foolish. For example, should fights be completely banned across the UK, then there would have to be the development of more close-knit communities. Unable to travel miles easily to visit friends and relatives, we would have to speak more with our neighbours and people in our local area. Our concerns would change and the way in which urban areas are built would completely change. However, if we spin that around, should we become close-knit communities with a strong sense of belonging, would we need to travel so much in the first place? I honestly don’t think so.
Another example is to look at the development of low carbon communities in developing nations. As DESERTEC and Germany have created a deal in North Africa to supply energy to them via the grid, there are going to be social negotiations. People will have to be employed from the local area, their demands need to be satisfied and there will have to be a fair policy to import technology & energy internationally. Thus, North Africa has the power that oil barons once had. Now, in my belief, should North Africa have always had that power, then alternative technology using solar cells and export could have possibly be thought of earlier. Social justice, where people from everywhere are treated equally in value and respected equally also is the ideal we should be aiming for.
Socio-economic justice, where corporations and nations hold so much sway over ex-colonial nations, is essential to certify an environmentally sustainable future. Tackling the hold of companies over ourselves and these nations is also essential to pull apart a system that has fallen apart so many times and roughly patched up. The solution is not Climate camp or funds, but a practice of ethical trading. This is why any solidarity movement is important and the new Reclaim Education are so important. We need to remove our borders and breakdown the barriers to create a fair and just “globalised” * economic system. In this way we can certify that resource costs are fair internationally and people are given a fair price for the goods that they produce and supply.
But isn’t this a free market system? I guess my model is idealistically free market, but I don’t think so. I think regulations and trade justice is important. Developing nations should be provided with incentives and extra funding for their resources, especially those which are run locally. Multinational corporations should be limited to the amount the can own and produce in any country as well. Empowerment of this model should begin at the grassroots, starting off with the most unfair supply chains/produce and slowly working its way up. The supply of any food should be based on equity rather than demand.
Supply and demand equilibriums do not exist as theory defines them because people are involved in trying to either create demand (advertising, etc) or supply (EU butter mounds, etc). The economy was not and never will be free because there is no space for true freedom, which can only come from a grassroots model.
So what can we as campaigners actually do? In my opinion, now is a time for radical action: not in the sense of stereotypical campaigns on destroying the current system, but putting pressure on the system to change. If we can expose the leaks and the rough edges of any economic management, we have already won by showing that theory practised internationally is only illusively the best system. We need to do that in solidarity by those who are most vulnerable. This is why joining the Workers’ Rights Consortium is such a vital step to solving anything. Although it’s such a little baby step, you need to take steps to finish a marathon, and you’ll probably pick up speed as you go along…
* I refer here to alter-globalisation.
Tags: climate change, environmental justice, poverty, social justice