The following is abridged from a motion unanimously passed on May 22 by the general membership of the Climate Emergency Network, Victoria. For more information on CEN, visit the group's website.
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Over the past decade or so, a climate movement has developed in many countries, both developed and developing. There has been a tendency for the climate movement in North America, Europe, and Australia to focus on ecological modernisation as a climate change mitigation strategy.
Such a strategy emphasises technological innovations, such as renewable sources of energy and energy efficiency, while often downplaying the need to address social disparities emanating from the global economy, both within nation-states and between nation-states.
While technological innovations constitute an important component of climate change mitigation, it is essential to recognise that the people of the world who have contributed the least to greenhouse gas emissions and anthropogenic climate change are suffering the most as a result of it and will continue to suffer from it.
The Climate Emergency Network resolves to make a commitment to promote climate justice both in Australia and abroad. We note the People’s Agreement drafted at the recent World People’s Summit on Climate Change and the Rights to Mother Earth in Cochabama, Bolivia, which has climate justice at the heart of its proposals.
While individual CEN members may disagree with some specific points of the People’s Agreement, as an act of solidarity with the international climate justice movement, it applauds its overall spirit and commitment to climate justice.
Furthermore, CEN encourages other groups involved in the Australian climate movement to more strongly address social justice issues and to recognise the role of the existing global economy in contributing to climate change, environmental degradation, and gross social disparities both at home and abroad.