Climate Justice
Climate change disproportionately impacts the young and vulnerable.
Climate Justice is a basic human right without which there are social, economic, public health, and other adverse impacts which disproportionately affect under-privileged populations. Younger people will also face an ever increasing set of challenges from the accumulation of greenhouse gases driving climate change throughout their lives. Leading nations responsible for the majority of carbon emissions historically have a moral responsibility to address the challenges. In order to minimize these concerns, we support taking a holistic approach, consisting of, but not limited to, prioritizing building resilience, addressing issues of climate migration, and promoting principles of circular economy (waste management, waste-to-energy, clean energy) in development.
Human activities have resulted in emissions of an almost unimaginable amount of CO2 into the atmosphere - 1500 GT since 1751 - resulting in the observed increase in global levels to over 400 ppm, with different countries responsible for emitting different amounts of greenhouse gases. CO2 emissions from the combustion of coal, natural gas, oil, and other fuels, including industrial waste and non-renewable municipal waste are shown in the figure below. Based on historic emissions, the US, Europe, and China have been the largest emitters. The US has emitted more CO2 than any other country to date, ~ 400 GT, which is 25% of the world total. The European Union, including the UK (EU-28), has emitted the second-most, ~350 GT, which amounts to 22% of the total. China has emitted the third-most, ~ 200 GT, or 13%. All the other countries, including Russia (6%), Japan (4%), and India (3%), together have emitted about 550 GT.
Historic carbon dioxide emissions by countries and regions as percent of world emissions (1751-2017).
In current emissions, China has surpassed the US and EU as the highest emitter, with the total share from the three top emitters changing from 60% historically to 41.5%. Reduction in the share of global emissions from the top three emitters is primarily due to the increase in emissions from developing countries such as India, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran, and others. When rankings of highest emitters of total annual carbon dioxide is compared by the population of each country (per capita emissions), developed nations typically have higher carbon dioxide emissions per capita, while most developing countries lead in the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions. These uneven contributions to the climate crisis shown in the figure below are significant challenges for establishing equitable and acceptable solutions to global warming.
CO2 emissions by country, organized in terms of total emissions and per-capita emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
The damages from climate change have significant costs that are borne throughout the globe, disproportionately impacting economically disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. Severe weather events, such as drought-induced forest fires, excessive flooding from hurricanes, and intense tornadoes, cause losses in the agricultural sector on which these populations are dependent, and they destroy buildings and property in low-lying and exposed areas, thereby resulting in losses for those who are least able to manage them. Weather-related economic damages from large disasters are increasing worldwide as the severe weather events become more frequent. Globally, disasters have more than tripled in number in the past 50 years.
In addition to severe weather, the effects of climate change on global healthcare have been overwhelmingly negative, including increased insect-borne infectious disease and increased heat-related illness, as well as higher incidence of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases caused by pollutants from fossil fuel combustion. As significant as the costs are to wealthy nations, the projected impacts on developing countries are even more severe, including large-scale health impacts, food insecurity, water insecurity, economic insecurity, and the loss of habitable land.
Land management and agricultural practices present a complex dilemma in relation to climate change, especially in the developing world, where the conflicting needs to preserve the ecosystem and to provide economic opportunities for the population are difficult to balance. The global food security issue alone puts expansion of agricultural lands in conflict with forest preservation. To balance the conflicting needs will require a coordinated set of measures including carbon price, reforestation programs, no-deforestation policies, as well as improved practices to enhance crop yields, reduce waste, and transition to less energy-intensive diets.
Today, we have only 4 billion hectares of forests of which only 1 billion hectares remain untouched by humans. These remaining billion hectares are the world’s remaining primary forests, e.g. the Amazon Rainforest in South America. There is an urgent need for forest protection as they not only absorb carbon dioxide and sequester it in their trunks, branches, leaves, and soil, but also house complex ecosystems that influence a forest’s ability to hold carbon, which potentially impact the feedback between the climate and the global carbon cycle.
Like primary forests, coastal wetlands – salt marshes, fresh- water marshes, mangrove swamps, forested swamps, and seagrass beds – are important for protecting coastal populations. They can hold five times as much carbon as tropical forests over the long term. As well, they are complex and important ecosystems. Threats to coastal wetlands include residential and infrastructure development, erosion, subsidence, and rising sea levels.
Developing countries require assistance in all of these regards. Developing the capacity to prepare and implement Climate Action plans which are sufficiently decentralized to address local issues are critical to building resiliency.
Climate change is rapidly threatening many regions of the world and causing large-scale migration.
The first US Climate Migration report commissioned by President Joe Biden in February 2021 warns that large-scale climate migrations are underway, both within
countries and between them, and are going to get much
worse. Climate change is expected to displace ~ 143 million people in Latin America, South Asia,
and sub-Saharan Africa, by 2050. This number represents about 3 % of the population, with nearly 1 % expected
to migrate internationally from climate displacement.
A few of the causes of climate migration are:
-Floods and water insecurity and loss of rural livelihoods and income, particularly for poorer populations
-Loss of ecosystems, biodiversity and ecosystem goods, functions and services
-Storm surges, sea level rise and coastal flooding; inland flooding in some urban regions; and periods of extreme heat
-Extreme weather events leading to break-down of infrastructure networks and critical services
These
problems are disproportionately affecting poorer regions of the world and resulting in food and water insecurity and the loss of habitat . One study predicts loss of habitability of over 1 billion people in the next 50 years. There
is an urgent need to address these vulnerabilities, accelerate
adaptation to and build resilience against climate change.
While a common method to reduce waste is to use recyclable materials, recover them through waste recycling, and re-use them in production of new goods, a more systemic approach is a circular economy. A circular economy is broader incorporating a model social system that employs not just recycling, but creating a closed-loop from extraction of natural resources to production of products to their use, reuse, repair, ultimate dismantling and recycling, minimizing the requirement of material resources and energy and the creation of wastes, environmental burdens, and especially carbon emissions. A circular economy is needed to further reduce waste and improve sustainability of economic activities. Public policy can help drive adoption of circular economy principles, lower GHG emissions, and promote a sustainable economy. Certain EU countries and Japan have taken the lead in developing circular economies, which provide models for adoption by the US and other nations.