EJOLT project analyzes proposals for opposing climate injustice and inequality
30/09/2015
The report is a compilation of essays by climate justice activists and academics “to give a voice to resistance movements, share vital research into actions that harm the environment and show how the UN’s lack of leadership threatens the planet and exacerbates the climate crisis”.
The publication suggests that climate change is happening faster than previously thought, and its editors state that “while the ice-caps melt, sea-tides rise and desertification grows, global leaders continue to ignore the popular mandate to confront the fossil fuel industry and the root causes of climate change”.
The authors criticize the fact that over the past 21 years they have witnessed “government and corporate-led strategies on climate change focused on profits for big business and resulting in devastating market-led mechanisms that do nothing to address root socio-economic and environmental problems”. Therefore, they demand, “these ineffective and dangerous policies must stop now.”
The report is a collection of stories from around the world on how global decentralized climate justice movements are opposing fracking, pipelines, off-shore oil, and dirty coal: racking up victories and gaining strength. According to ICTA-UAB researcher and report co-editor Leah Temper, “the ongoing resistance of those living alongside exploitative projects – from forest-grabbers to pipelines – are the most powerful force for keeping fossil fuels under the ground and the main hope in the struggle against climate change”. The report shows how “in the face of paralysis from the UN, resistance to global climate injustice and inequality is alive and building from the ground up”.
The report is accompanied by an EJOLT-produced video shot at the Unis´tot´en camp in North-Western British Columbia, Canada, showing how the camp is succeeding in stopping up to seven oil and gas pipelines, holding up billions in investment and keeping millions of cubic metres of fossil fuels under the ground.
The report is a product of EJOLT (Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade), an EU-funded project coordinated at ICTA-UAB, that brings together 23 research and activist organizations from all over the world to support Environmental Justice research and action.
Read the complete EJOLT report here