Climate justice and the right to solidarity

Usha Natarajan addresses climate change and the right to solidarity. She notes that we live in a world where the richest 20 percent consume 80 percent of resources and creates 90 percent of waste. There are no incentives for the rich to change their behavior because the consequences of their pollution are borne largely by the poorer 80 percent. Inequality on such a scale is systemic; it is structured and enabled through, among other things, international law. In such a situation, working in solidarity provides hope for the majority of the world left behind by the development choices of the rich. Climate justice movements cooperate transnationally to compel the rich to cease economic exploitation and greenhouse gas emissions. In combatting powerful entrenched interests, increasing numbers of environmental justice activists face assassination, forced disappearance, retaliatory litigation, incarceration, criminalization, vilification, and more. A right to solidarity entails protecting such movements and activists. More than this, such a right acknowledges the need to cede space to cultures and traditions long ignored and silenced in international law, so that more sustainable and equitable ways of living together can emerge. In this sense, the right to solidarity can help create a discipline that does not just “claim” to be international but that is truly international.