Anita Talberg writes in The Conversation (17.3.16) about UN special envoy on climate change, Mary Robinson’s, claim that governments must ensure their efforts to curb the worst effects of climate change include standards of “climate justice”. This comes after Robinson addressed the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute earlier this week about Australia’s challenges after the recent Paris climate change agreements.
‘In 2011 in Durban, South Africa, a new negotiating group was established to begin deliberations on a climate agreement to begin after 2020. At that time, “climate justice” sat squarely in the remit of non-governmental organisations but was not used in official discussions.
‘Four years later, at the Paris climate conference, the call for climate justice was brought inside the walls of the negotiations. It is even included in the preamble to the official Paris Agreement.
‘… According to the Mary Robinson Foundation, climate justice “links human rights and development to achieve a human-centred approach” to climate change action. It is the concept that fairness must be an integral and driving element of climate decision-making.’