Climate Justice

Climate change disproportionately affects poor and marginalised communities, who have contributed least to the problem. Climate justice “identifies climate change as a symptom of unfair and unrepresentative economic, social and political institutions, drawing links to other issues like rising global inequality.”

Rooted in decades of advocacy by people of colour and Global South communities, the climate justice movement now includes youth, women, Indigenous Peoples, and disabled activists demanding systemic change. It challenges unjust institutions, pursues legal accountability, and calls for a just transition that shares the benefits of climate action fairly. Rejecting false solutions that entrench inequality, it insists on deep structural transformation - “system change, not climate change.”

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) 2025 Advisory Opinion, requested by Vanuatu and other countries, affirmed that states are legally responsible for both emissions and enabling activities like fossil fuel subsidies. By recognizing the right to a healthy environment and endorsing the 1.5°C target, the Court strengthened the legal foundations of climate justice, especially for vulnerable communities seeking redress for loss and damage. It confirms that weak climate action is not just a policy failure, but a justice issue.

There are three key dimensions to justice. The first is “Distributive” - i.e. the fair allocation of resources and climate burdens. The second is “Restorative” - i.e. repairing ecological harm and human-nature relationships. The third is “Procedural” - i.e. inclusive governance and decision-making across generations.

Intergenerational climate justice holds that today’s decisions must not compromise the rights of future generations. It spans distributive, restorative, and procedural justice, and is increasingly reflected in law, youth-led litigation, and global principles like the Maastricht Guidelines.

Recognition justice addresses how powerful actors ignore or misrepresent the interests, knowledge, and identities of vulnerable communities. Misrecognition can occur both formally (e.g. exclusion from decision-making) and discursively (e.g. dominant narratives that erase local perspectives). Recognition is essential for distributive and procedural justice to avoid reinforcing injustice and “climate colonialism”.

Climate reparations are a central demand of climate justice movements, particularly from the Global South. These aim to address centuries of unequal industrialisation, extraction, and emissions by the Global North at the expense of colonised and marginalised communities. While it can be difficult to compensate for harm that is ongoing, scholars argue that reparations must go beyond monetary values to address redistribution of power alongside resources.

There are few practical tools to measure whether climate action is just and equitable, as the ones that do exist lack actionable metrics to quantify implementation. Any measurable indicators should cover all defined justice dimensions: Distributive, Procedural, Recognitional, and Exposure.