What is climate justice?
Climate justice means dealing with climate change in a way that is fair to all people, including the poorest and future generations.
It asks three questions:
- Who caused the problem? (responsibility)
- Who is harmed the most? (vulnerability)
- Who should do what to fix it? (fair sharing of costs and benefits)
The atmosphere is a commons: something everyone shares and no one owns, like the oceans. When some people use far more of it than others, the others still pay the price. This is why climate change is also a question of ethics and human rights.
Unequal causes: who emits?
Greenhouse gas emissions are spread very unevenly:
- By income: the richest 10% of the world's people cause roughly half of emissions from consumption (flights, large homes, cars, goods). The poorest 50% cause only around 12%.
- By history: CO₂ stays in the air for centuries. Countries that industrialised early (in Europe and North America) have released a large share of all CO₂ since 1850.
- Per person vs total: China and India have large total emissions because they have huge populations, but emissions per person in India are far below the world average, while those in the USA are several times higher.
So the same tonne of CO₂ can be the result of a luxury (a holiday flight) or a basic need (cooking, a light bulb). Many people argue these should not be treated the same.
Unequal impacts: who is vulnerable?
Vulnerability means how likely a person or place is to be harmed. It depends on three things:
- Exposure: how much of the hazard reaches them (living on a coast, a floodplain or in a hot city).
- Sensitivity: how badly they are affected (crops that need rain, poor health, weak houses).
- Adaptive capacity: how well they can cope (money, insurance, early warnings, hospitals, air-conditioning).
Groups that are often more vulnerable:
- Low-income countries and small island states.
- Poor households in cities, especially in informal settlements.
- Smallholder farmers, fishers and outdoor workers.
- Women and girls (more unpaid work like fetching water; less access to land and money), children and older people.
- Indigenous peoples whose food and culture depend on local ecosystems.
Climate change can also force people to move (climate migration) and can make existing inequality worse: those who lose a harvest become poorer and even more vulnerable next time.
Between generations: today's emissions warm the planet for decades and raise seas for centuries, so young people and future generations carry much of the burden. This is called intergenerational justice.
Fair responses: responsibility and sharing
Ideas used to share effort fairly:
- Polluter pays: those who caused the damage should pay to fix it.
- Ability to pay: those who are richer should contribute more.
- Common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR): a principle in UN climate agreements. All countries must act, but richer and historically high-emitting countries should lead and help others.
- Equal per person: every human has an equal right to use the shared sky, so the remaining carbon budget could be shared per person.
Main types of action:
- Mitigation: cutting emissions (clean energy, efficient transport, less waste). Faster cuts by the biggest emitters protect everyone.
- Adaptation finance: money and technology to help vulnerable places protect themselves (sea walls, drought-resistant seeds, cyclone shelters, heat action plans).
- Loss and damage: help for harm that cannot be avoided, such as homes lost to rising seas. A fund was agreed at COP27 (2022) and started work after COP28 (2023).
- Just transition: as coal mines and oil plants close, workers and communities get new jobs, training and support so that they are not left behind.
Fair sharing of natural resources: the same thinking applies to water, land, forests and fish. Questions include: should a city take water from farmers upstream? Should forests be protected for animals and the climate if local people depend on them for income? Good solutions include the voices of those affected, share benefits and protect nature's own needs.
Individuals act too: reducing waste, using public transport, voting and speaking up. But climate justice reminds us that the biggest changes must come from governments and large companies.
Try it: a fair-share game
Take 20 sweets as a 'carbon budget' for 10 friends. First let 1 friend take 10, 4 friends take 2 each, and the last 5 share 2. Is it fair? Now a storm comes: the 5 with the least must pay 'repairs'. Discuss with your family which rule is fairest: equal shares, pay by what you took, or pay by what you can afford. In the 3D free play, try cutting only the richest group's emissions and see how much longer the budget lasts.
Key formulas and definitions
- Vulnerability = exposure + sensitivity − adaptive capacity (an idea, not a formula to calculate)
- Years the budget lasts = remaining carbon budget ÷ yearly emissions
- Per-person emissions = total emissions ÷ population
- CBDR: all must act; those with more responsibility and capacity act more
- Responses: mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, just transition
- Justice across groups (rich/poor, North/South) and across generations
Worked examples
1. Country A emits 400 million tonnes of CO₂ a year with 20 million people. Country B emits 2,000 million tonnes with 1,000 million people. Which emits more per person?
A: 400 ÷ 20 = 20 tonnes per person. B: 2,000 ÷ 1,000 = 2 tonnes per person. B has the larger total, but A emits 10 times more per person.
2. About 200 Gt of CO₂ can still be emitted for a good chance of about 1.5 °C, and the world emits about 40 Gt a year. How long will the budget last? What if the richest 10% (48% of emissions) halve their emissions?
200 ÷ 40 = 5 years. Halving the richest group's share saves 40 × 0.48 × 0.5 = 9.6 Gt a year, so emissions are 30.4 Gt a year and the budget lasts 200 ÷ 30.4 ≈ 6.6 years. One group's change has a large effect.
3. Two families face the same flood. Family X has a strong house, insurance and a car; family Y lives in a mud house by the river and earns daily wages. Explain who is more vulnerable.
Both have similar exposure, but Y has higher sensitivity (weak house, daily income lost) and lower adaptive capacity (no insurance, no transport). So Y is more vulnerable and will take longer to recover.
4. A coal mining town will lose its mine as a country moves to solar power. What would a just transition include?
Retraining workers for new jobs (for example in solar installation), support payments and pensions during the change, new local industries, cleaning up the land, and involving workers and families in planning, so they do not carry the cost of a change that benefits everyone.
Common mistakes
- Thinking climate change hits everyone equally. The same hazard harms poorer and more exposed people much more.
- Comparing countries only by total emissions. Per-person and historical emissions tell a different story.
- Believing climate justice means only rich countries must act. All must act; the principle is that effort is shared by responsibility and capacity.
- Mixing up adaptation and loss and damage. Adaptation prepares for harm; loss and damage deals with harm that could not be avoided.