Global South

Global South "functions as more than a metaphor for underdevelopment. It references an entire history of colonialism, neo-imperialism, and differential economic and social change through which large inequalities in living standard, life expectancy, and access to resources are maintained." -Dados and Connell (2012) .

Global South justice is a climate justice issue

The knowledge shared in the following table comes from:

1. The collaborative 'Fair Shares' webinar by the HUB and the Climate Emergency Unit held on October 11th.

This event featured:

Anjali Appadurai (she/her): Climate justice organizer and communicator. Anjali worked at the UN Climate convention to ensure social movements demands were heard in halls of power. Today, Anjali runs the Padma centre for climate justice, a project that brings together diasporic communities to build power around issues of climate and economic justice. She works as the Campaign Director at the Climate Emergency Unit.

Meena Raman (she/her): Head of Programmes of Third World Network (TWN) 

Ceecee Holz (they/them): A senior research at the Climate equity reference project and executive director of the climate equity reference project Canada. Ceecee is an affiliated researcher at Stockholm environment Institute, and co-teaches a course at Carlton U. Their studies focus is on equity and fairness to address International action on climate change. They served as the executive director for Climate Action Network Canada

2. Additional sources were compiled by Bryan Giroux.

We must do our 'fair share' to achieve climate justice	Anjali Appadurai explains: To keep global emissions below 1.5 degrees, we must cumulatively reduce about 400 Gt of carbon. Effort to reduce this much carbon is divided between the world's governments. How do we divide it fairly? Depends on:     -Historical emissions and responsibility (considering inequities created by colonialism, enslavement)     -Right to human development (bring people out of poverty, get people educated, safe and health)     -Differing capabilities and capacities (based on who benefited from colonialism, enslavement) Thus, Canada: Must lower emissions by 140% of 2005 levels by 2030 (#'s are higher now) How do we reduce more than 100%? Domestic energy transition (-60%) Climate finance, technology and capacity support, loss and damage contributions to developing countries (80%). This is in addition to domestic reduction. This is important because... Sharing the burden fairly is our only change to calm the crisis It's International law Uniting in solidarity and common cause is how we win!
The Global North disproportionately caused the climate crisis, yet, the Global South will bear the greatest burden	The poorest 50% of the world's population emits only 7% of the total greenhouse gases (Migration to Asia Peace, 2022). Anjali Appadurai explained that most cumulative emissions come from North America, Europe and Asia. The smallest come from India, Africa, South America and Oceania According to a report by Oxfam, privileged lifestyles in the Global North produce a carbon footprint that is one hundred times larger than the Global South (Riaz, A., 2021). The unequal distribution of the costs of climate change adds to the worsening of the wealth gap between the Global North and South. The high price of mitigation and adaptation loans further disadvantages the Global South, which is most affected by the climate crisis. They are accumulating climate debt for a crisis they didn't cause (Rice, J., 2009).
Wealthy nations caused and perpetuate the climate crisis by exploiting the resources, lands and labor of the Global South	(Neo)colonialism resulted in unequal land distribution, present-day land conflicts, and extractivism in the Global South (Estermann, J., 2014). The dominance of the extractive sector by the countries of the Global North resulted in the dependency and 'underdevelopment' of the Global South (Estermann, J., 2014). Countries in the Global South export raw materials, energy, land, and labor worth $10 trillion annually to account for the debt caused by the Global North (Migration to Asia Peace, 2022) For justice, equal per capita entitlement to the planet's resources consistent with ecological boundaries is necessary (Gonzalez, C.,2015).

Where do we go from here?

Anjali Appadurai shared that our role is to:

• Expose the pretence, duplicity and hypocrisy of policymakers who undermine fairness
• Push governments for transparency and courage on meeting climate obligations
• Show our governments that climate finance and fossil fuel phase out are important to us and we will vote accordingly

To stay connected to work on fighting for fair shares in Canada, visit: https://www.climateemergencyunit.ca/fairshares

If you have any suggested revisions or additional resources to share related to the above content, please email them to kenzie@lehub.ca.

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