A Climate for Justice? Faith-based Advocacy on Climate Change at the United Nations

Abstract

Climate justice is an important issue for civil society advocacy at the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC). While the climate justice movement has received increasing scholarly attention, the contribution of faith-based actors (FBAs) to justice debates at the UNFCCC has been largely overlooked. This article examines the contribution of FBAs to the debate on climate justice and their relation to and difference from the climate justice movement. Based on a constructivist assumption that the meaning of climate change can be interpreted differently, this article understands action on climate change as an effect of its discursive construction. This article argues that FBAs are part of these discourses and that their religious and spiritual practices are constituted and constitutive of climate justice practices. Therefore, the aim of this article is to understand FBAs’ climate justice practices and critically reflect on their contribution to global climate change politics.