The Climate Justice Coalition UK website.
[This is an excerpt from an article in The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.]
Introduction
Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to communities worldwide, exacerbating existing inequalities and threatening the well-being of current and future generations. In response, social movements and grassroots activism have emerged as powerful forces for change, mobilising communities, raising awareness, and advocating for policy action on climate justice. This article considers the critical role of social movements in advancing climate justice within Commonwealth countries, highlighting their strengths, limitations, and contributions to shaping a more sustainable and equitable future. Through case studies and analysis, we explore how social movements challenge power structures, amplify marginalised voices, and drive tangible change on the ground. By understanding the dynamics of grassroots activism, we can better appreciate the vital role of social movements in addressing the complex challenges of climate change and advancing climate justice for all.
While academic scholarship provides theoretical frameworks such as Intersectionality (Crenshaw, Citation1991) Postcolonial Theory (Said, Citation1978) and Feminist Theory (hooks, Citation1984) that can inform thinking on climate justice as well as providing policy recommendations, grassroots movements are often at the forefront of challenging power structures, amplifying marginalised voices, and driving tangible change on the ground (Chenoweth & Stephan, Citation2011).
Through a literature review and three case studies, this article will explore the diverse forms of climate justice activism emerging within Commonwealth nations, ranging from Indigenous-led protests against extractive industries to youth-led campaigns for renewable energy transition. It highlights the unique contributions of social movements in advocating for systemic transformation, community resilience, and intergenerational equity.
Social movements play a crucial role in implementing climate justice by mobilising communities, raising awareness, and advocating for policy change. This article argues for greater recognition of the role social movements play in shaping the discourse and practice of climate justice, while also acknowledging some of the limitations and constraints they face to effectively drive transformative change.
The article will first provide a short summary of the nature of social movements and the concept of climate justice, before moving to the three case studies from three very different Commonwealth countries. The three movements examined in this article are: Seed Mob in Australia, Karachi Bachao Tehreek in Pakistan, and Rural Revive in Namibia. In doing so, it will demonstrate how social movements can mobilise diverse stakeholders, build solidarity across intersecting struggles, and disrupt business-as-usual narratives perpetuated by entrenched interests. The article considers the strategies employed by activists to leverage media, technology, and direct action to amplify their demands and hold decision-makers accountable.
Social movements
The meaning of climate justice cannot be fully understood independently of the ‘pluralistic history of the social movements that have developed the concept over the past decades’ (Schlosberg & Collins, Citation2014, p. 12). A social movement can be characterised as a collective effort of individuals, groups and/or organisations, often loosely structured, working together to address a specific issue or bring about social change within society (Diani, Citation1992). These movements typically coalesce around shared goals, values, or grievances, aiming to challenge existing power structures, norms, or policies perceived as unjust or oppressive (Rucht, Citation2010). Social movements can take various forms, ranging from grassroots initiatives driven by local communities to large-scale campaigns with national or even global reach. What distinguishes a social movement is its collective nature, where individuals come together to advocate for their interests, raise awareness, and mobilise resources to achieve their objectives.
Introduction to a special edition of the Round Table Journal – Climate justice and the Commonwealth: Justice or order?
Special edition of the Round Table Journal on climate justice and the Commonwealth
While not always successful in achieving their aims, throughout history, collective mobilisation has been a powerful force for challenging existing norms, structures, and systems of oppression or injustice. Social movements have, in specific contexts, played key roles in driving social, political, and cultural transformations, leading to profound changes in various societies (Almeida, Citation2019). Examples include community-led public health campaigns and movements for civil rights, gender equality, indigenous peoples’ resistance to colonialism (Almeida, Citation2019; Ishkanian, Citation2022).
Social movements can exist and function at a local level while maintaining the collective resistance narrative to the systems of injustice. They use scale as a ‘strategic device to promote their cause at the most important level … constructing the local places as sites of political struggle’ (Fisher, Citation2014, p. 75).
Social movements strategically employ various mechanisms to influence policy change, strategically aligning demands, tactics, and timings within their overall strategy (Almeida, Citation2019). Education typically serves as a foundational pillar of the work, as movements strive to raise awareness, inform, and empower the public on how to understand climate change through the lens of social justice, is crucial to addressing the climate crisis (Center for Climate Justice, Citation2024). Agenda setting is utilised as a strategic move, where movements strategically bring attention to overlooked concerns, thrusting them into the political spotlight. Through advocacy and lobbying efforts, activists directly engage with policymakers, presenting specific demands and pushing for legislative reforms or resource allocations. Coalition building also plays a crucial role, as movements forge alliances with like-minded organisations and policymakers, amplifying their collective voice and political influence. Finally, direct action serves as a powerful tactic for disrupting business-as-usual and pressure decision-makers to enact policy change, generating media attention, raising public awareness, and exerting political pressure on decision-makers to heed the demands of the movement.
Climate justice
The concept of climate justice was shaped by the broader environmental justice movement, which highlighted the racially unjust impacts of environmental damage on minority groups in the late 20th century. While exact conceptualisations have sometimes diverged between academics and activists, climate justice highlights the disproportionate impacts of climate change on those least responsible for causing it (Barret, Citation2013; Sultana, Citation2022). More specifically, it has been used to frame the disparity between industrialised nations, which have historically emitted significant amounts of greenhouse gases, freely burning fossil fuels, and poorer regions that bear the brunt of the resulting rise in global temperatures (J. Gabbatiss et al., Citation2021). The climate justice literature initially focused on the international, and top down scale, including the principles of justice, international agreements, rights, and responsibilities, and tending to focus on inequality between rather than within states (Barret, Citation2013; Bulkeley et al., Citation2014; Trott et al., Citation2023).
Since its emergence in mainstream research in the early 2000s (Agyeman et al., Citation2003; Caney, Citation2005; Irwin & Wynne, Citation2003), the concept of climate justice has come to encompass the disproportion of climate impacts among various marginalised groups, such as Indigenous communities, people of colour, women, and individuals with disabilities. It is now recognised that climate change exacerbates and perpetuates existing inequalities, and therefore to address the climate crisis, we need to address a multitude of injustices.
Melina Dickson is the Communications Co-ordinator, Climate Justice Coalition, London, UK.
