Climate justice

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Climate justice is a movement that recognizes that climate change is unequally affecting people in the Global South, Indigenous Peoples and the most marginalized communities in the Global North. These unequal impacts are the result of our governing systems; systems that exploit land and bodies, which are capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, extractivism, racism etc. These are systems of oppression that interact, feed and build upon each other, and thus perpetuate each other. Climate justice puts forward the need to understand the climate crisis as an intersectional issue where the structures that cause and sustain it must be addressed simultaneously.

Because those who have contributed the least to climate change are the most affected, the climate justice movement calls for centring those who are most marginalized. This means following their leadership, centring their realities, concerns and demands. It requires the liberation and emancipation of all from systems of oppression. These systems are the source of ongoing ecocide. They produce and perpetuate structural social inequalities that are amplified in the face of the climate crisis. The climate crisis is more than an environmental crisis. It amplifies existing crises and creates new ones. - The HUB [1]


The climate crisis is an intersectional issue

The following pages are meant to encourage climate activists to create coalitions and campaigns that draw links and encourage collaboration beyond climate change alone. They contain content on the intersections of climate and other social issues. 

Disability justice and climate justice

See our definitions page for disability justice, which includes examples to help understand why disability justice is climate justice.

LGBTQIAS+ issues and climate justice

See our page on LGBTQIA2S+ issues and climate justice, which includes examples to help understand why LGBTQIA2S+ justice is climate justice.

Migrant justice and climate justice

See our definitions page for migrant justice, which includes examples to help understand why migrant justice is climate justice.

Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice

See our definitions page on Indigenous sovereignty, plus our related pages on decolonization and land back. **Examples to help understand why Indigenous sovereignty is climate justice to come.**

Abolition and climate justice See our definitions page on Abolition, plus our related page on the carceral state. **Examples to help understand why abolition is climate justice to come.**
Labour, poverty and climate justice See our page on class issues/labour and the climate movement, and our definitions page on poverty**Examples to help understand why labour and addressing poverty is climate justice to come.**

Working together to address issues of oppression

To address intersectional issues of oppression simultaneously, activists/people experiencing and targeting various forms of oppression must work together. This will help to build the collective power necessary to win the changes we're seeking. The following pages contain content on how we take our knowledge on climate change as an intersectional issue, and apply it in practice.


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


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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  1. www.lehub.ca