Demystifying climate justice

livemint.com:

greenhouse gas emissions, has led a successful effort to adopt a United Nations resolution that seeks a legal opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on states’ obligations to tackle climate crisis. This is a significant step towards holding polluting countries legally accountable for their contributions to climate change and the consequences of their inaction. However, despite the strides made by nations like Vanuatu, there is a clear inequity in how climate change affects the world.

Climate change does not affect everyone equally and everyone has not contributed equally to the problem of climate change. For instance, the northern hemisphere profited tremendously from the Industrial Revolution and consequently, contributed almost entirely to the fossil fuel usage and the associated pollution. Similarly, the economically well-off classes lead much more energy intensive lives than the economically weaker sections.

Ironically, however, they are also the first and worst affected by the impact of climate change, whether it’s carbon cess on fossil fuels or disruptions from extreme climate events. In every other environmental paradigm, the principle is always “Polluter Pays", but in this case, the people who are paying for it are not really the ones causing the problem. Addressing this inequity is at the core of climate justice.