— Ch. 1 · Defining Justice Frameworks —
Climate justice.
~4 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
In September 2021, a crowd gathered in Berlin under the banner "fight for climate justice". This moment captured a movement that seeks to address how climate change impacts differ across populations. Climate justice focuses on unequal burdens falling on marginalized or vulnerable groups. It demands an equitable distribution of both the costs of climate change and the efforts needed to fix it. Some economists estimate the economic burden of mitigation at around 1% to 2% of global GDP. The concept rests on two main pillars: procedural justice and distributive justice. Procedural justice emphasizes fair, transparent, and inclusive decision-making processes. Distributive justice focuses on who bears the financial and social costs of climate action. These principles guide advocates who argue that corporations, individuals, and governments have obligations toward those most affected by environmental shifts.
Historical Roots Of Inequity
The roots of current climate injustice stretch back centuries into systems like colonialism and industrialization. Environmental scholars Kyle Powys Whyte, Zoe Todd, and Dina Gilio-Whitaker trace these issues to early practices of extraction and clear-cutting. British colonialism in Ireland serves as a historical predecessor to similar exploitation patterns seen later in the United States. Laws such as the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Dawes Act of 1887 facilitated the displacement of Indigenous peoples from their lands. These actions created environments where environmental violations could easily occur against specific communities. Systemic oppression has made many Indigenous groups more susceptible to being treated as expendable by governments. Today, pipelines and oil drilling often proceed on Indigenous land because existing structures of power allow it. This history of colonization continues to shape how resources are extracted and how risks are distributed globally.