Climate Justice

Marrakech was never going to write history on loss and damage in the same way that Paris did in 2015. Whilst the progress made in the Paris Agreement was tangible at Marrakech, rich countries didn’t allow a real breakthrough yet. The Marrakech talks did, however, lay some groundwork for future progress.

At the UN climate summit in Morocco from November 7 - 18 (COP 22), the global climate community aims to breathe life into the Paris Agreement. However, the real discussion about the most contentious points, including finance and what to do with loss & damage, begins only now in earnest.

Thirty years ago, in 1986, before the world's attention focused on climate change as the defining existential challenge of our times, the Declaration on the Right to Development was adopted. This article explores the timeliness of using the right to development as an ethical framework for climate finance provision in line with the concept of climate justice. 

On Thursday March 17th at the U.N.’s 60th Commission on the Status of Women,  hbs North America led a parallel event entitled “Why Are Gender Considerations Key for Climate Finance Actions?” Here is a quick peek into the outcomes of the discussion. 

Instead of changing our economic system to make it fit within the natural limits of the planet, we are redefining nature so that it fits within the economic system.

Some twenty-four years after the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a lot has been done to advance climate change law, both internationally and in Germany and the European Union. However, neither international law nor national law have been able to achieve true progress. Global emissions continue to rise, and the anticipated impacts of climate change are now becoming reality. 

More than two thirds of anthropogenic GHG emissions are caused by only 90 companies. These oil, coal and gas companies are reaping exorbitant profits and are getting huge government subsidies. It’s time to make them pay a levy for the loss and damage they cause. A proposal from the Climate Justice Programme (CJP).

The history of climate policy is also one of the massive sway of the energy industry lobby. More recently, however, that lobby is having to surrender its forts- is dirty business losing its sway on politics? 

Globally, political leaders are lauding the acceptance of the global and legally binding Paris Agreement on Climate Change at COP 21 as a historical moment. It achieves a goal long believed unattainable. However, judged against the enormity of the challenge and the needs and pressure from people on the ground demanding a global deal anchored in climate justice (“system change, not climate change!”), the Paris Agreement can only be called a collective failure and disappointment. Read a critical assessment by hbs colleagues from around the world.