Climate Justice Research Articles

Mainstreaming climate change in legal education

ABSTRACT Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing society today. Emerging legal professionals need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills required to respond to the challenges posed by climate change. This foundational education needs to commence during law school and be seamlessly integrated into the curriculum of all relevant law courses. The traditional law curriculum aims to educate students in three key areas: substantive law, adjective law and the practice of law. Each of these areas can be reformed to mainstream climate change in legal education. For substantive and adjective law, the inclusion of climate change materials within course curricula raises students’ consciousness of the climate crisis. Climate change litigation has tested the boundaries of both substantive and adjective law, creating valuable educational case studies. For the practice of law, there is a need to teach the craft of lawyering, how to translate substantive and adjective legal knowledge into effective legal practice. I suggest the incorporation of six skills of legal thinking into law school curricula, alongside teaching of effective oral and written communication skills. These tools are essential for lawyers to navigate the legal landscape effectively in the face of the climate crisis.

Race Matters: The Long Walk to Decolonizing Development NGOs

Development NGOs have long been under scrutiny for their colonial legacy. Decision-making structures are predominantly white or European. There is little racial equity analysis of staff, programs, and campaigns. Poverty and development are understood as happening “there” in low-income countries. This article analyzes the UK-born NGO ActionAid and its steps toward decolonization. In the 2000s, country directors and international board members diversified beyond British nationals to give more decision-making power to African, Asian, and Latin-American countries. Other advances, yet recent, include an antiracism audit and the start of a large racial equity program. International campaigns are often critical toward the UK’s role in low-income countries or include UK domestic aspects requiring “development” (poverty, climate justice …). The paper shares practical measures to the sometimes-theoretical debate on decolonization and development. It suggests that this process is not in contradiction—but rather promotes—the mandate of addressing poverty where it is most severe worldwide.

Repoliticizing STEM Education Through the Medium of Climate Justice

Repoliticizing STEM Education Through the Medium of Climate Justice

Climate Justice Campaign with Theme-Based Learning Approach to Achieve SDGs on Climate Action

Community service activities are a mandatory responsibility for university lecturers as part of the Tri Dharma. This research aimed to investigate attitudes and behaviors towards environmental conservation and analyze the impact of theme-based learning on children in Sei Tuan Village, contributing to broader community-level efforts to protect and preserve the environment. A mixed-methods approach was employed, involving both qualitative and quantitative paradigms to collect and analyze data from 13 children residing in Sei Tuan Village, Deli Serdang Regency. A Pre-Test – Treatment – Post-Test methodology and observations were utilized in conducting the research. The results revealed that 85% of children in Sei Tuan Village demonstrated proficiency in distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy environments. Additionally, all individuals exhibited concern for the environment, including methods of preservation and the benefits of a pristine environment. Notably, 77% of students received comprehensive instruction on categorizing trash into organic, inorganic, and hazardous types. Moreover, 88.5% of individuals articulated positive effects resulting from nurturing environmental affection. Theme-based learning was found to enhance children's recognition of environmental and climate change issues, sparking their interest in learning, particularly in applying basic English vocabulary to care for and protect the environment.

Wildfires and climate justice: future wildfire events predicted to disproportionally impact socioeconomically vulnerable communities in North Carolina

Wildfire events are becoming increasingly common across many areas of the United States, including North Carolina (NC). Wildfires can cause immediate damage to properties, and wildfire smoke conditions can harm the overall health of exposed communities. It is critical to identify communities at increased risk of wildfire events, particularly in areas with that have sociodemographic disparities and low socioeconomic status (SES) that may exacerbate incurred impacts of wildfire events. This study set out to: (1) characterize the distribution of wildfire risk across NC; (2) implement integrative cluster analyses to identify regions that contain communities with increased vulnerability to the impacts of wildfire events due to sociodemographic characteristics; (3) provide summary-level statistics of populations with highest wildfire risk, highlighting SES and housing cost factors; and (4) disseminate wildfire risk information via our online web application, ENVIROSCAN. Wildfire hazard potential (WHP) indices were organized at the census tract-level, and distributions were analyzed for spatial autocorrelation via global and local Moran’s tests. Sociodemographic characteristics were analyzed via k-means analysis to identify clusters with distinct SES patterns to characterize regions of similar sociodemographic/socioeconomic disparities. These SES groupings were overlayed with housing and wildfire risk profiles to establish patterns of risk across NC. Resulting geospatial analyses identified areas largely in Southeastern NC with high risk of wildfires that were significantly correlated with neighboring regions with high WHP, highlighting adjacent regions of high risk for future wildfire events. Cluster-based analysis of SES factors resulted in three groups of regions categorized through distinct SES profiling; two of these clusters (Clusters 2 and 3) contained indicators of high SES vulnerability. Cluster 2 contained a higher percentage of younger (<5 years), non-white, Hispanic and/or Latino residents; while Cluster 3 had the highest mean WHP and was characterized by a higher percentage of non-white residents, poverty, and less than a high school education. Counties of particular SES and WHP-combined vulnerability include those with majority non-white residents, tribal communities, and below poverty level households largely located in Southeastern NC. WHP values per census tract were dispersed to the public via the ENVIROSCAN application, alongside other environmentally-relevant data.

Local Economic Conditions Affect Aedes albopictus Management.

Invasive mosquitoes are an emerging public health issue, as many species are competent vectors for pathogens. We assessed how multiple environmental and socio-economic factors affected the engagement of municipalities in Italy (n = 7679) in actions against Aedes albopictus, an invasive mosquito affecting human health and well-being, between 2000 and 2020. We collected information about mosquito control from official documents and municipal websites and modeled the role played by multiple environmental and socioeconomic factors characterizing each municipality through the random forest algorithm. Municipalities are more prone to manage A. albopictus if more urbanized, in lowlands and with long infestation periods. Moreover, these variables are more predictive of management in municipalities with a high median income and thus more economic resources. Only 25.5% of Italian municipalities approved regulations for managing A. albopictus, and very few of them were in Southern Italy, the most deprived area of the country. Our findings indicate that local economic conditions moderate the effect of other drivers of mosquito control and ultimately can lead to better management of A. albopictus. If the management of invasive mosquitoes, or other forms of global change, is subjected to local economic conditions, economic inequalities will jeopardize the success of large-scale policies, also raising issues of environmental and climate justice.

Social psychological pathways to climate justice: Emerging insights and intersecting challenges

As the impacts of climate change grow in frequency and intensity, climate justice—the recognition of climate change’s unequal impacts across populations, as well as inequities in the benefits and burdens from societal responses to climate change—has become a central focus of climate policymaking, advocacy, and scholarship. In this review, we take stock of these trends to consider what social psychologists can contribute to this discourse. We draw from integrative perspectives within the environmental social sciences, as well as emerging insights from psychology, communication, and public health, to highlight three areas with growing policy relevance that are ripe for social psychological inquiry: (a) understanding factors that influence climate vulnerability, its causes, and remediation; (b) identifying barriers and pathways to inclusive climate governance and decision-making; and (c) enhancing justice in climate solutions. For each, we consider the relevance of group and intergroup processes and highlight emerging empirical insights and key unanswered questions. We conclude by considering the urgency and challenges of translating psychological research to address climate injustice and highlighting opportunities for advancing the societal relevance of this research.

Bringing the future back to the present: The role of prefiguration in European climate justice activism

Social movement scholarship has long attempted to apprehend the dynamic qualities of social movements. Considering the temporal embeddedness of social movement activities is essential because it leads to an understanding of continuity and change in the content and form of social movements in the long run. Because the past, the present, and the future are co-defined, more attention should be paid to the way different time frames shape one another. In this article, we focus our attention on the influence of visions of the future on present practices. Drawing on qualitative research mainly in Belgium, France, and Germany, we explore how projected climate-just futures influence the practices of grassroots climate justice organizations in the present. For this purpose, we center our analysis on a macro-level vision that depicts a climate-just world as a world where domination systems (aka. capitalism, colonialism, or patriarchy) have been replaced in order to let a more egalitarian society strive. We use the concept of prefiguration to illustrate how this vision transforms organizing and mobilizing activities. Such transformative effects are exemplified in attempts at developing an alternative organizational culture and building alliances with marginalized groups, with more or less success.

Community Service Perspectives on Climate Change and Social Justice in Western Australia

ABSTRACT Social workers increasingly recognise the relationship between social injustice and climate change, which is underpinned by oppressive systems of power such as colonialism, racism, capitalism, and patriarchy. Climate change exacerbates existing structural inequities, with disproportionately negative impacts on marginalised populations. In their work across diverse fields of social work practice, community service organisations (CSOs) have an important frontline role in supporting communities to mitigate and adapt to climate change. In the state of Western Australia (WA), a group of CSO leaders and university researchers commenced a feminist participatory action research (FPAR) program about climate justice and community services. In the first FPAR cycle, they undertook a survey, interviews, and workshops with CSO workers to examine social justice impacts of climate change in WA. CSO workers generally self-reported a low understanding of social justice and climate change. They identified climate impacts across themes of health, economic injustices, discrimination and access, housing and displacement, and gendered injustices. The authors contend that as climate change intensifies, CSOs must embed climate justice in their operations and services so that they might adequately prepare for, and respond to, the social justice impacts of climate change. IMPLICATIONS Increased understanding of workers’ perspectives of the social justice impacts of climate change in Western Australia can identify knowledge gaps in the community service sector. Embedding a climate justice lens can assist CSO operations and programs to prepare for, and respond to, the social justice impacts of climate change.

Climate Justice and Climate Adaptation in California: Indigenous Community Climate Adaptation Leadership and Opportunities for Scientific Collaboration

Abstract Climate and weather-related disasters in California illustrate the need for immediate climate change action - both mitigation to reduce impacts and adaptation to protect our communities, relatives, and the ecosystems we depend upon. Indigenous frontline communities face even greater threats from climate impacts due to historical and political legacies of environmental injustice. Climate change adaptation actions have proven challenging to implement as communities struggle to access necessary climate data at appropriate scales, identify effective strategies that address community priorities, and obtain resources to act, at a whole-community level. In this paper, we present three examples of Indigenous communities in California that have used a climate justice approach to climate change adaptation. These communities are drawing upon community knowledge and expertise to address the challenges of adaptation planning, and taking actions that center community priorities. The three cases address emergency preparation and response, cultural burning and fire management, and community organizing and social cohesion. Across these spheres, they illustrate the ways in which a community-based and climate justice-focused approach to adaptation can be effective in addressing current threats, while also addressing the legacy of imposed, socially constructed vulnerability and environmental injustices. Because we recognize the need for multiple knowledges and skills in adaptation actions, we include recommendations that have emerged based on what’s been learned through these long-standing and engaged participatory research collaborations for climate scientists who wish to contribute to climate justice-focused adaptation efforts by using scientific data to support – not supplant – community efforts, target funding toward genuine community engagement and adaptation actions, and become aware of the historical and political legacies that created the climate vulnerabilities and injustices evident today.

Intersectional Victims as Agents of Change in International Human Rights-Based Climate Litigation

Abstract Climate change uniquely affects those who are at the intersection of several inequalities simultaneously, such as those based on gender, age, and disability. This makes them ‘directly affected’ by climate change, which is crucial in establishing ‘victim status’ under Article 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights. At the same time, as a result of unequal power relations, intersectional victims face exclusion from, or minimal participation in, political decision-making processes concerning climate change. This further justifies their claim to victim status as a matter of procedural climate justice. As agents of change, intersectional victims, namely elderly women and girls with disabilities, can be empowered to contribute to climate decision making, thereby reshaping unjust power relations. The article examines two climate cases currently before the European Court of Human Rights: Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, brought by elderly women, and Duarte Agostinho et al. v. Portugal and 32 other States, brought by children and young people.

The case for longtermism: concern for the far future as a catalyst for pro-climate action

Amid escalating climate challenges, we examine relationships between longtermism beliefs with policy-level and grassroots climate-protective attitudes and actions. Across four primary pre-registered studies (N = 4451) and two supplementary pilots (N = 1858), we find that a significant portion, approximately 25% of our participants, who endorse the longtermism ethical philosophy, report heightened climate change concerns. Furthermore, longtermists show stronger support for pro-climate policies, advocate for initiatives in line with climate justice for future generations and present-day minoritized groups and make proactive contributions to environmental causes and initiatives. Moreover, we find that responsibility to distant future generations drives these associations. Through a targeted intervention, we boosted intergenerational responsibility and increased donations to an environmental charity. These findings highlight how longtermism beliefs shape pro-environmental attitudes and actions, offering valuable insights for climate advocacy strategies and cultivating more widespread support for comprehensive environmental policies.

The Tension within Norms: Agency and Risks in Pursuit of Global Climate Justice

Abstract How can IR theory capture both the possibilities of agency for historically underrepresented groups and the limitations that different social struggles present for them? This paper proposes a framework based on relational approaches, decolonial perspectives, and the concept of “tension” between possibilities and risks of agency to analyze the dynamics of norm emergence and circulation. It builds on, but moves beyond, constructivist analyses of the norm life cycle and adopts a relational and decolonial lens in order to probe normative agency and its consequences within the context of international negotiations. Focusing on constructivist theories of socialization with multiple feedback effects, the paper calls for a fourth agentic turn in the study of norms and their genealogy and offers an analytical and empirical roadmap to chart a more complex scenario of co-constitution for norms. The paper refers to the case of climate justice to illustrate, empirically, the importance of employing the concept of tension to unveil agentic moments in norm circulation, while also highlighting, theoretically, the risks and limitations that are present in meanings that continue to reinforce colonial legacies.

Episodic populist backlashes against urban climate actions

Populism is multilayered and involves two main dimensions – ideology and strategy – which are employed within and beyond political parties. These dimensions can result in sometimes overlapping but generally divergent backlashes, targeting specific climate and sustainability interventions in cities. This critical commentary presents episodic populist backlashes against urban climate actions by exploring how they create their own political landscapes across the political spectrum in cities against progressive urban climate agendas. Specifically, the article examines how episodic populist backlashes manifest on an urban scale and highlights the need for urban scholars to pay more attention to the phenomenon. The article proposes two complementary explanations for why populism precedes urban climate actions in episodic and thematic ways. These explanations include policy backlashes against diffused global climate norms in cities, and counter-movements and rhetoric against climate justice and what it entails, such as inclusion in decision-making and intersectionality. The article then concludes by offering a research agenda on the episodic populist backlashes against urban climate actions, which highlights the need for a better understanding of how episodic populist movements might emerge into global climate policy diffusion, and climate justice coupled with intersectionality in cities of the Global North and Global South.

The Island's Call for Justice: NGO Advocacy in the Climate Litigation Case of Pari Island in Indonesia

Climate injustice has become a prominent issue following the Paris Agreement, where emissions generated by developed countries burden local communities in developing countries. Consequently, one of the efforts to address climate injustice for communities in the Global South is through climate litigation processes. The process itself is a challenging one since the litigants need support legally and politically to ensure it has proceeded. Here, non-governmental organisation’s (NGO) engagement is the most feasible support that local communities can access. This article analyzes the dynamics of climate justice attempts through a unique case study: climate litigation between residents of Pulau Pari, a small island located in the Java Sea, Indonesia, and the cement giant Holcim-LaFarge in Switzerland. This climate litigation is advocated by three collaborating NGOs: HEKS (Switzerland), ECCHR (Germany), and WALHI (Indonesia). Using a qualitative method, we analyze the role of NGO advocacy in the litigation process using the advocacy function concept by Joseph Szarka; issue framing, construction and dissemination of knowledge, responsibility attribution, political lobbying, public mobilization and agenda setting. We argue that the advocacy support of the three related NGOs amplified the climate litigation process beyond legal proceedings. The strategy of advocating climate litigation is an innovative way to create wider recognition from the international community and push adaptation to the struggle of the local community.

Greener through gender: What climate mainstreaming can learn from gender mainstreaming

AbstractAddressing the urgent global climate crisis demands a rapid and meaningful expansion of “climate mainstreaming,” which refers to the integration of climate objectives in all aspects of development programs and policies. However, progress remains slow and uneven due to bottlenecks in policy and institutional change. Considering the parallel struggle recorded over decades to mainstream gender across the same policy arenas, a key question emerges: what can climate mainstreaming learn from gender mainstreaming? To answer this question, we review 57 policy, strategy, and guidance documents of United Nations agencies, all of which integrate these themes into food security and broader development programming. Our analysis identifies gaps in climate mainstreaming efforts and derives lessons from gender mainstreaming to bridge these gaps. It underscores the importance of adapting programmatic mainstreaming strategies in response to evolving contexts, for example, by simultaneously considering both mainstreaming and targeted interventions. Additionally, it highlights the need to adopt organizational climate mainstreaming and establish mechanisms for accountability. Finally, it emphasizes the urgency of embracing a climate justice lens; in practice, this involves prioritizing populations at greater risk of climate change impacts and actively engaging diverse perspectives in decision‐making, particularly communities facing multiple forms of discrimination.This article is categorized under: Integrated Assessment of Climate Change > Assessing Climate Change in the Context of Other Issues Climate and Development > Sustainability and Human Well‐Being Policy and Governance > International Policy Framework

EU-Chile Horizons: Climate Justice for a Shared Strategy on Critical Minerals

The European Union has not only raised the need for strategic autonomy, but has also opened up to re-establishing new relationships. One of these relationships in the spotlight is Latin America, which has the highest concentration of critical minerals, key, among other things, for the energy transition of the Union and Latin America itself. However, the instruments of European law have become more flexible beyond Mercosur and the prevailing formalism, and a new cycle of relations is being generated. To a large extent, this adaptation may combine new ways of conceptualizing the role of "strategic for both parties", since European energy autonomy and the business diplomacy experienced by some Latin American countries such as Chile are not mutually exclusive. The Chilean case is paradigmatic of this crossroads, as the country is part of the new wave of natural resource sovereignty, but at the same time it is considering executing the development imaginary together with the geopolitical interests of the European Union.

Teach for Climate Justice: A Vision for Transforming Education

Review of Tom Roderick. Teach for Climate Justice: A Vision for Transforming Education.
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Exploring context-specific perspectives: a qualitative study on building climate resilience health-care facilities in southeast Asia

BackgroundAlthough existing literature provides various tools, frameworks, and guidelines for building health-care facilities that can withstand the impacts of climate change, there is little research focused on the practical implementation of such strategies. This gap in the research is particularly noticeable when applying these guidelines to specific geographical and environmental contexts. We focus specifically on the southeast Asia region, a region that has been identified as one of the most susceptible to the effects of a changing climate. By offering practical, region-specific recommendations, we hope to contribute to the ongoing efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change on health-care infrastructure and services. MethodsTo gain a comprehensive understanding of the specific challenges, needs, and feasible indicators for progress towards climate resilience in health-care facilities, we conducted in-depth interviews with members of the Global Green and Healthy Hospital Network in southeast Asia. Participants were selected based on a mix of facility and system parameters and were took into account various contexts, including urban and rural settings as well as low-income and high-income countries. Both private and public health systems and facilities were considered. This network comprises health-care professionals who are committed towards environmental sustainability and climate justice. FindingsFrom Oct 6 to 28, 2023, we conducted interviews with eight participants and augmented this analysis with data drawn from existing published reports. The interview findings highlighted various primary areas of focus, which encompassed disaster readiness, low-carbon strategies, and the financial aspects of climate resilience. A prevailing theme was the importance of behaviour change alongside staff training and education. The unique perspective centres around the notion of health equity and its relationship with climate change. This perspective underscores the heightened awareness of environmental, economic, and social disparities that are exacerbated by climate change in southeast Asia. Issues include resistance to change, lack of public awareness, and economic versus ecological priorities. The absence of a standardised and systematic approach to implementing climate-resilient healthcare indicates a need for flexible and adaptable regional policies. InterpretationThe findings of this study contribute to the broader understanding of how health services can be reoriented to face the realities of climate change effectively. This research outlines tangible recommendations for health services from both a process and impact points of view, and offers valuable insights for health policy makers, health-care providers, and researchers in the field. FundingHealth Care Without Harm southeast Asia.

Learning to Teach about Climate Justice and Social Justice in Science Methods

In November, the Editors of NWJTE sat down for a conversation with Dr. Mindy J. Chappell, a Science Teacher Educator in the College of Education at Portland State University. Dr. Chappell’s passions include developing teachers who are prepared to disrupt normative science ideologies and provide young people with science instruction that encourages and empowers them to be leaders in their communities. She engages in arts-based educational science research through the methodology of Ethnodance (a term she coined). She places young people and their lived experiences at the heart of her work.