Climate justice: identity, history and power

Part II of The Regenerative Activism Series. Participants: Gita Parihar, Hiba Ahmad (Our Future Now), Nick Dearden (Global Justice Now), Sheila Menon (Ulex Project & Plane Stupid), Rachel Kennerley (Friends of the Earth).

The climate crisis is as much about power and politics as it is about the environment. This session explores the challenges involved in ensuring climate justice and designing a just transition beyond our carbon-belching system for all communities and workers. How can we achieve the changes required in a way that promotes justice and equality by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing the historic oppression of frontline and vulnerable communities and countries? How can we ensure that the structural transformation required doesn’t strengthen the hand of those who already use their power to exploit and oppress? Understanding the power dynamics of race, class, gender and our economic and political systems – both locally and globally – are crucial to building a climate justice movement. It involves reconstructing our identities, building renewed understanding of our histories, and re-forging our socio-political relationships.

Contributors

Gita Parihar

Gita was Head of Legal at Friends of the Earth until July 2016 and has spent 12 years working with and for campaigning organisations, using her skills as a solicitor to bring environmental cases and advise at international negotiations on issues like climate change.

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Hiba Ahmad

Hiba Ahmad is a climate justice activist at Our Future Now.

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Global Justice Now - Nick Dearden

GJN is a democratic social justice organisation working as part of a global movement to challenge the powerful and create a more just and equal world. They mobilise people in the UK for change, and act in solidarity with those fighting injustice, particularly in the global south.

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Sheila Menon

Sheila joined the Ulex team in 2019. She supports partner organisations and is taking a lead role developing Ulex’s work building capacity for POC and migrant led activism. Prior to joining Ulex her activism was primarily focused in the UK around grassroots organizing, including the anti-fracking, anti-aviation and anti oil sponsorship movements.

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Rachel Kennerley

Rachel Kennerley is the international climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth.

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