Climate Justice and Attribution

Realising that climate change is neither felt nor distributed equally

Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister Simon Kofe addresses COP26 knee deep in sea water to highlight how his low-lying Pacific Island nation is on the frontline of climate change.
Image: The Guardian

Since COP26, the twin ideas of climate justice and attribution have gained ever more attention. Photos of Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister Simon Kofe addressing the COP26 delegates knee deep in seawater to highlight his low lying nation’s vulnerability to climate change circulated around the world.

We in the West are no strangers to the effects of climate change – wildfires, droughts, flooding, and extreme storms have all made themselves felt in recent years. But they are all too often categorised as one off events, or at least far enough apart to allow us to recover, regroup and move on.

For many parts of the world – predominantly the global south – climate change is a daily reality and has been for years.

we in the north, you in the south

Understanding climate justice begins with the idea that the adverse impacts of a warming climate are not felt equitably. This is compounded by the fact that those who have done the least to cause climate breakdown are the ones who suffer the worst of its effects.

A report by the Center for Global Development found that the US and EU countries were responsible for 79% of climate changing emissions between 1850-2011.

Mozambique produces just 0.09% of the world’s total emissions and its citizens each have a carbon footprint around 75% smaller than citizens of the UK ; in 2019 Mozambique was hit by two cyclones, less than a month apart, the first of which was the second deadliest ever to hit the South Hemisphere, the second cyclone was the strongest ever to hit Africa.

These disparities and geographies force us to recognise that climate justice is a social, political, and historical one, as well as an environmental one. Western industrialised countries are now making efforts to reduce our immediate emissions – but we also need to account for our historical emissions.

This is often also called ‘climate attribution.’ There are increasingly sophisticated scientific data techniques to measure exactly how much a given country has contributed over the centuries to GHG emissions and therefore climate change. If we can quantify how a country has directly affected the planet’s wellbeing, we can also quantify how much responsibility that country has to help set it right.

India caused uproar during the COP26 negotiations by pledging to reach net zero only by 2070 – 20 years or more behind many other countries - as well as forcing delegates’ hand over the precise wording of fossil fuel reductions. Its stance on development vs environmentalism highlighted some of the thorniest issues the global community needs to confront around climate change.

"How can anyone expect that developing countries make promises about phasing out coal and fossil fuel subsidies? Developing countries still have to do deal with their poverty reduction agenda," India's Environment Minister, Bhupender Yadav, said. Their fundamental point is that developing countries are being put under pressure to move from fossil fuels to renewables, while developed countries are not helping them either financially or technologically.

 "You cannot keep having your luxury emissions, and then point fingers at the person who's having emissions just to survive," says Farhana Sultana, an associate professor of geography at Syracuse University in New York.

accounting for yesterday

Being a climate action leader today in purely emissions reductions terms is considered a laudable bear minimum. "The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty," Greta Thunberg wrote in The Guardian in 2019.

The scope of that moral duty is enormous, scooping up issues including colonial legacies, financial reparations, and generational inequalities. In the latest International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published earlier this year, authors linked this for the first time to colonialism. As industrial ages grew across North America and Europe, natural resources in countries across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean were stripped.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) states that wealthy countries who have a historic responsibility for causing the crisis must provide financial support to help poorer countries reduce emissions and adapt to impacts. As Friends of the Earth Scotland puts it, “Climate finance is an obligation, a debt owed, additional to any existing developmental aid, and should be paid with no strings attached.” At the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009, rich countries committed to giving 100 billion US dollars per year by 2020, a commitment reaffirmed as part of the 2015 Paris agreement. Yet by 2019, only about a third of that had been given and nowhere near enough commitments are making up the shortfall.

As well as our financial obligations, the West should also make available technological knowledge and materials that will allow developing countries to leapfrog outdated technology (energy, transportation, infrastructure etc). Such knowledge should be patent free and open source. In conjunction with the financial assistance owed to the countries, this knowledge share will ensure countries move straight to the most efficient non-polluting options available today, giving rise to the hope that rather than obliging developing economies to cut their emissions, a proportion of those emissions might never be created in the first place.

As well as the historic reparations to be made, there is an intergenerational inequality to climate change which is only now becoming known. The sad truth is that today’s youth and future generations will experience more profound impacts of climate change as it worsens over time, from direct adverse health impacts to the financial implications of needing to shore-up infrastructure and other adaptation and mitigation needs. Action we take today (or lack thereof) will have a direct bearing on our children, their children, and generations to come.

how to think about climate justice

A report for the UNFCCC revealed that, even if all carbon dioxide emissions were stopped today, most of the current effects of climate change would persist for centuries.  This is not to say we might as well stop trying. Far from it. Thinking that someone else will save the world is a sure fire way of making sure no one does.

What we do need to do is recognise the fact that climate change is here to stay and accept it.

As climate justice and attribution become as common place as GHG reductions or carbon offsetting, there are several key factors we should all bear in mind as we approach the subject.

Climate justice is a web of interconnected issues. Mary Robinson is the former President of Ireland, and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She now heads up a foundation focused on climate change justice. Her succinct explanation of climate justice is the best we have found: “Climate justice is a moral argument in two parts. Firstly it compels us to understand the challenges faced by those people and communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change… the people on the front lines of climate change have contributed least to the causes of the climate crisis. Climate justice also informs how we should act to combat climate change. We must ensure that the transition to a zero carbon economy is just and that it enables all people to realise their right to development.”

We are almost all part of the 1%. In 2019 the World Economic Forum (WEF) calculated that anyone with an income of $32,400/year was part of the 1%.

Earning at least $28,000/year put you in the top 5%.

We assume that almost everyone reading this will be far better off than at least 85% of the world’s population. There is truly little we can do about where we are born and to whom but that does not mean we can wilfully ignore those less lucky than ourselves; again, quoting the WEF “…enjoy your wealth – seriously do. Just also recognize your share of responsibility.”

Given our lucky, comfortable circumstances, we as a society and, we would argue, as members of the ESGmark® community, have a responsibility to recognise our good fortune and endeavour to share it. It is also important to use the platform you have to ensure others in your personal and business communities become aware of climate justice, its implications, and our group responsibility to take action.

Accounting for today is just a fraction of what we are responsible for. Actions we take today will certainly mitigate our emissions this year and hopefully lower them ever closer to zero but approaching net zero in the 2020s is only the beginning. We in the West have an enormous GHG ‘debt’ to reckon with.

Listen to voices in the global south. Traditionally climate conversations have been led by activists from the Global North but those most burdened by climate change are overwhelmingly in the Global South - fighting climate change requires an international effort but voices from the countries and communities most affected by climate change must take centre stage.

The subject of climate justice and attribution is huge, complicated, and fast moving. If this blog has piqued your interest, there is a wealth of information to be found on the Mary Robinson Foundation, as well as excellent resources on Friends of the Earth and the Center for Climate Justice.

We also have plenty of resources covering issues related to Climate Justice including eco-anxiety, COP 26 outcomes, the UN’s ‘To Do’ list and other trends shaping 2022.