CAMP collaborates with indigenous and environmental organizations mobilizing to keep fossil fuels in the ground. These organizations are calling for climate justice, or a socially just response to climate change. Climate justice means different things to different people, but in the context of energy it emphasizes a just transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewables like solar and wind, while creating jobs and local economies that support those less well-off.

“Climate justice frames climate issues as questions of social justice, raising ethical and political concerns about who drives climate change and vulnerability, who is most affected by climate change and variability, who makes decisions about responding to climate change, and how climate policy can address problems of inequality and socially just development.” – University of Arizona Climate Justice Network

Just Transition Resources

The following list of articles and publications address climate justice explicitly. This list is not comprehensive. Make sure to visit the Climate Justice Alliance and Our Power Campaign Resource Clearinghouse for more information about just transition and the US Clean Power Plan.

Making decarbonization work for workers - Policies for a just transition to a zero-carbon economy in Canada

Making decarbonization work for workers is a January 2018 report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Communities across Canada need a national strategy to ensure the move to a zero-carbon economy leaves no one behind. For the first time, this report uses census data to identify the regions in each province with the greatest reliance on fossil fuel jobs. The new analysis comes after the federal government announced last fall it will launch a task force in 2018 on a “just transition” policy framework for certain sectors. In general, the broad goal of a just transition is to ensure an equitable, productive outcome for all workers in the decarbonized future.

Achieving 1.5 °C and Climate Justice

A special issue titled “Achieving 1.5 °C and Climate Justice,” published February 2018 in the journal International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics. The papers in this Special Issue grapple with the issue of how equity should be defined, elaborated and implemented not just with respect to the design and implementation of climate policy, but regarding what kind of science is promoted and how, and how country commitments can be viewed in terms of equity.

 

Organizations working for Climate Justice

The Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) is the main network that coordinates climate justice efforts in the United States. CJA’s Our Power Campaign works to end the era of extreme energy and transition to local living economies, based on democratic decision-making and local control of resources like energy, land, water and food systems. Learn more about CJA and other climate justice networks and non-profits below, or visit our partners page to learn more about organizations we work with.

“Climate change demands that we ask what kind of world we want to live in, and is as much a social issue as an environmental one. Everywhere in the world, low-income, politically marginalized communities—historically those least responsible for CO2 emissions—are also those hardest hit by climate change and every aspect of the energy industry, from toxic pollution to resource wars.” – Rising Tide North America, on Climate Justice

The following list includes NGOs and community groups in North America that CAMP has followed closely. While all of these organizations have climate justice campaigns, this list is not complete. For a more comprehensive list of climate justice organizations in the USA, refer to the Climate Justice Alliance leadership body. For international climate justice initiatives, see the Demand Climate Justice list of participating organizations. For a list of organizations working effectively for climate justice in the Global South, see this DCJ article “So you want to donate to the global movements for climate justice?”  (January 2018).

Climate Justice Alliance     Demand Climate Justice

Climate Justice Alliance

CJA ImageCJA is a collaborative of over 35 community-based and movement support organizations uniting frontline communities to forge a scalable, and socio-economically just transition away from unsustainable energy towards local living economies to address the root causes of climate change. Their work is united behind the Our Power Campaign, which works to move local and state governments to create millions of climate jobs that meet people’s needs while caring for natural resources and ecosystems.

Rising Tide

Rising Tide North america LogoRising Tide is an international, all-volunteer, grassroots network of groups and individuals who organize locally, promote community-based solutions to the climate crisis and take direct action to confront the root causes of climate change. Learn more about Rising Tide North America or Rising Tide UK.

350.org

350.org logoFounded in 2008 by author and environmentalist Bill McKibben, 350.org coordinates a global climate movement through a network of online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions in over 188 countries.

Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

GGJ LogoGGJ is a national alliance of US-based grassroots organizing (GRO) groups organizing to build an agenda for power for working and poor people and communities of color, as the foundation for a popular movement for peace, democracy and a sustainable world. GGJ is an anchor organization for the Climate Justice Alliance.

Movement Generation

movement generation logoMovement Generation inspires and engages in transformative action towards the liberation and restoration of land, labor, and culture. Their work is rooted in vibrant social movements led by low-income communities and communities of color committed to a Just Transition away from profit and pollution and towards healthy, resilient and life-affirming local economies.

Indigenous Environmental Network

IEN LogoIEN was formed in the 1990s by grassroots Indigenous peoples to address environmental and economic justice issues in the United States. IEN works to build the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, the health of people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.

Idle No More

idle no more logoINM is a Canadian Indigenous movement that has sparked hundreds of teach-ins, rallies, and protests for Indigenous sovereignty and environmental protections. The movement unites a range of demands for social and environmental justice and has helped organize actions for climate justice across North America.

Honor the Earth

honor the earth logoHonor the Earth exists to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities. Honor the Earth develops these resources by using music, the arts, the media, and Indigenous wisdom for recognition of our joint dependency on the Earth and the voices for those not heard.

Black Mesa Water Coalition

BMWC logoBMWC is dedicated to preserving and protecting Mother Earth and the integrity of Indigenous Peoples’ cultures, with the vision of building sustainable and healthy communities. BMWC strives to empower young people while building sustainable communities on Navajo Nation in Arizona.

Amazon Watch

Amazon watch logoAmazon Watch works directly with indigenous communities to build local capacity and advance the long-term protection of their lands. Many of these communities have been fighting to keep fossil fuels in the ground for decades.

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