Climate justice focuses on the 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.
In June 1992, the Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted at the UN Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Article 3.1 of this agreement established that developed countries should take the lead in combating climate change based on equity.
By December 2022, the number of climate change-related lawsuits had grown to 2,180 worldwide. More than half of these cases occurred in the United States, totaling 1,522 lawsuits.
Systemic oppression has made many Indigenous groups more susceptible to being treated as expendable by governments. Laws such as the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Dawes Act of 1887 facilitated the displacement of Indigenous peoples from their lands.
Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20, causing rainfall that is now five times more likely due to a warming planet. Systemic inequality determined who survived and recovered from this disaster despite federal responses being unequal.