Tackling Climate Change Without Worsening Inequality in Communities
By Rose Morrison, managing editor of Renovated
The climate crisis impacts all living things, but certain populations are more vulnerable and disproportionately affected than others. Many mitigation projects unintentionally deepen these systemic divides, so activists, communities and governments must recover from environmental damage in more mindful, equitable ways.
How does this manifest in the long term, and how will certain techniques help populations recover from poor environmental justice oversight?
The Relationship Between Environmental Justice and Climate Change
Credit: Marlenenapoli – Own work
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Eco-social justice is the bridge between environmental activism and human rights. Ecological balance is only achievable if there is social balance within humanity. These ideas assert living on a healthy planet is a human right, so exploiting it for resources and ruining biodiversity is contradictory.
However, sometimes, actions people take to reverse climate change breed inequalities. For example, a megacorporation installing a solar farm on indigenous lands may promote renewable energy but disrespect a marginalized community.
Therefore, the expansion of climate change-reversing technologies negatively impacts this population’s way of life while preventing it from viewing this development as positive for the planet. Resentment and oppression persist, misconstruing the values behind environmental remediation and positive climate action.
There are ways to make the planet sustainable, carbon-friendly and inclusive simultaneously, but acknowledgment of the most prominent social injustices is required first.
The Most Prominent Inequalities Amid Climate Change
These are the most glaring problems preventing the planet from engaging with climate change recovery in an authentically sustainable fashion.
People Living With Disabilities
People living with disabilities are often ignored or dismissed when it comes to advocacy. Stereotypes and inaccuracies about capabilities limit their acceptance in climate discourse. Eliminating the stigmas and working toward inclusive climate governance is a requirement. For example, many green infrastructure projects fail to consider the needs of people living with disabilities, just as conventional buildings have for years. A lack of intersectionality is a persistent concern across other minority populations, too.
Another facet of this conversation is how worsening climate change may cause individuals to develop disabilities. Pollution or natural disasters may lead to ailments beyond the understanding of other groups.
Environmental Discrimination
Environmental discrimination is a concept that explains how climate change harms minority groups, such as indigenous communities or members of underrepresented groups, more harshly. Numerous social factors play a role. In some cases poverty or the price of land may be attributed to this phenomenon.
For example, when poverty is a factor — it is often more affordable to live near a plant that burns chemicals and releases fumes. These communities may end up littered with waste and pollutants because for some unethical corporations it’s better for their bottom lines not to correctly and safely dispose of waste. Homes with eco-friendly materials and more sustainable environments, on the other hand, come with a higher price tag than many families can afford.
People Without Homes
Natural disasters can leave countless individuals without homes. The energy transition is increasing the cost of living, making housing more inaccessible. Additionally, people in privileged positions in higher-income communities are more likely to have the physical protection and insurance to withstand the brunt of a disaster. This leaves some in precarious positions.
Investments in environmental policies through federal and public programs may also inadvertently impact people without homes. If budgets focus more on ecological advocacy than making affordable housing or outreach, their risk exposure increases.
Low-Income Regions
Many underserved and underdeveloped areas of the world struggle to make ends meet, with concerning issues such as food insecurity and global illiteracy. Because of this, many organizations offer opportunities to individuals desperately seeking employment, even if they do not align with what is best for the planet. Several corporations exploit the desperation of these populations to participate in destructive industries like destructive mining or fast fashion. Finding other employment options for these communities is critical.
However, eco-conscious opportunities are not setting up operations in these areas. Coal miners in low-income nations do not have the same ability to shift to green energy as those in the Western world. This causes job losses in vulnerable sectors, leading to further inequitable economic growth.
People in the Digital Divide
Only 60% of the world has internet access. Numerous demographics exist in areas with minimal to no access to this technology. While this group may include varying backgrounds, ethnicities, classes, genders and more, access to digital resources is not equal worldwide.
This prevents the spread of plentiful, accurate information concerning the climate crisis. The lack of education limits what communities can learn and, therefore, do to help the planet recover. However, grid upgrades, renewable energy and eco-friendly machinery are more likely to enter areas with existing internet access before providing resources to those in the digital divide. This widens the gap and makes digital literacy even more important.
The Consequences of Neglecting Equity
These communities face side effects that inevitably impact the rest of the world from fixing the climate crisis. The deep inequalities also hurt more than carbon emissions.
Extreme Poverty
Climate change could be why 25 million people will be in poverty by 2030 and 32 million by 2070, even if general levels trend downward. There are several ways this occurs. Repeated droughts and wildfires could leave individuals without income and stability. Fossil fuel companies overtake areas that cannot fight back and sap the soil and water of resources.
Positive climate action may also contribute to extreme poverty by leaving households with low access to resources. People without access to fresh clean water or ways to cool themselves will suffer during a heat wave, and environmental advocacy must consider this so more communities survive.
Social Distress
Many things contribute to inequity, especially neglect, leading to tensions in under resourced areas versus wealthier, urban locations. Neglecting to include all areas in climate change response will lead to protests catalyzed by injustice. Additionally, resource scarcity will cause conflicts inside and outside these communities, making harmful perceptions about minority populations more toxic.
Food and Water Scarcity
Without intersectionality, people disadvantaged by the system will face even greater food and water insecurity than they do now. Their lack of resources will cause more health problems when inequalities have already made access to health care limited. While climate change action helps more prominent communities remain pollutant-free, preserving farms and public health, inequity leaves some populations in more dire straits.
Failure to Achieve Climate Objectives
Holistic climate change reversal must happen in every corner of the world, or the solutions employed may be ineffective. Communities may also resist accepting climate-related help from systems that have historically dismissed their relevance or caused them suffering in the first place.
Insufficient Disaster Recovery
Climate activists and governments that fail to acknowledge specific communities leave people vulnerable to intense weather. A flood or frost could uproot their society, making it more expensive and time-consuming to recover from disasters every time they occur — if the community can make a comeback at all.
It is not sensible to only protect major cities with generators, storm drains, or local emergency shelters and services when one event could wipe out countless underprotected neighborhoods.
Seeking Climate Action Without Inequality
The 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) had many objectives, including finding ways to make the world more energy-efficient and emissions-free by 2050. The COP is one of the most critical fixtures in global climate change remediation, and it recognized its failures regarding energy efficiency.
Because of its inadequacies in meeting the Paris Agreement, it drafted five strategies to double energy efficiency by the end of 2030. This includes mobilizing energy efficiency finance more inclusively and upgrading infrastructure codes to boost the sustainability of built environments.
Another action that is being taken to reduce inequality while battling the climate crisis is electrifying and expanding public transit. Accessible transportation, including electric bikes and scooters for community members, creates safe, inexpensive and carbon-friendly options for neighborhoods of all backgrounds. Infrastructure bills are critical for expanding electric bus routes or railways. This includes laws like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or California Senate Bill 350, which has provisions for electrification expansion.
Several community engagement projects are also trying to upskill and retrain workers within fossil fuels. This prepares them for the renewable energy sector and widens their skill sets for more job opportunities in the future. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act operates on a local level to assist displaced people in getting into wind, solar or other renewable projects.
However, nothing is more critical than policy advocacy. Inclusive climate policies that empower marginalized voices and support grassroots organizations will be the foundation for helping neglected populations rise above how the climate crisis has negatively impacted them.
The European Union Green New Deal has the Just Transition Mechanism to train workers from all backgrounds so they do not have to stay within toxic industries. The New York State Climate Leadership and Protection Act also sets aside 35%-40% of its investments for disadvantaged regions. These are examples of how future legislation could prioritize the most vulnerable.
The Community-Based Approach
Efforts to reverse the climate crisis must consider minority populations and underserved geographies before they unintentionally make matters worse. Otherwise, there will be broken links worldwide undermining the efforts of environmental activists and policymakers.
Inclusive thinking and diverse stakeholders are the components of widespread success when battling the climate crisis. Climate goals without intersectionality are not genuine or effective initiatives — they merely delay ecological degradation and lengthen the stay of systemic oppression.
About the Author
Rose is the managing editor of Renovated and has been writing in the construction industry for over five years. She’s most passionate about sustainable building and incorporating similar resourceful methods into our world. For more from Rose, you can follow her on Twitter.