The term 'climate justice' is everywhere right now, but what does it mean?

WITH COP27 now underway in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, through November18, "climate justice" is a term that seems to be getting a lot of use, whether in the media, on social networks or in NGO campaigns. But what exactly does it mean and what issues does it encompass?

"Climate justice" is a term that is increasingly being brandished on protest signs and climate marches. The concept even had its own day last year, with the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice, held one week after the beginning of the COP26 climate conference, held in November 2021 in Glasgow.

But what exactly does climate justice mean? According to a definition given by Yale Climate Connections, "'Climate justice' is a term, and more than that a movement, that acknowledges climate change can have differing social, economic, public health, and other adverse impacts on underprivileged populations."

In the philosophical sense of the term, the notion of climate justice evokes the environmental inequalities between populations in different parts of the world. Climate justice also reflects the ecological injustice that populations will suffer because of the inaction of those responsible for this imbalance, lawyer Marine Calmet, specializing in environmental law, told ETX Studio.

As a result, many associations and NGOs speak of "climate debt" and "loss and damage" to refer to the imbalance between the richest countries that pollute the most and the lower-income countries that are often the most greatly affected by the consequences of the climate crisis.

The fact that COP27 is being held in Africa makes this issue particularly relevant. "COP27, which is being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, from November 6 to 18, could finally change the situation. On the condition that states like France, historically among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, take their responsibilities," argues Greenpeace France on its website.

But the term climate justice also refers to legal action brought against states, such as those that have signed up to targets set by the Paris Agreement, involving reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, but which have failed to meet their commitments. "Climate justice seeks to obtain the obligation to act. It is a way to force the hand of governments," explains Marine Calmet.

According to a report from the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, published in July 2019, 1,300 lawsuits related to the climate crisis have been launched against states between 1990 and 2019. While the vast majority of these cases have taken place in the United States, others have emerged elsewhere in the world, such as in Brazil, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Australia and more.

This has also been the case in France. In February 2021, the Paris Administrative Court found the French government guilty of "climate inaction" and deemed illegal the "failure to respect its own commitments to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions." A judgment described as "historic" by Greenpeace, Oxfam, the Nicolas Hulot Foundation and Notre Affaire à Tous, the four NGOs behind this legal action, dubbed "The Case of the Century."