Our Work

Strengthening an inclusive African movement mobilized to advance climate justice, and offer solutions for a more sustainable future

For the AACJ consortium, climate justice means all people have the right to live a decent and dignified life in a healthy environment. We believe that curbing climate change and enabling all people to build resilience and recover from climate-related shocks is key to break the vicious cycle of inequality and vulnerability. We believe all governments must develop and implement policies and practices that:

Protect their delicate ecosystems

Protect their delicate ecosystems – tropical forests, savannahs, montane grasslands, mangroves, deserts, wetlands – and ensure the sustainable management of natural resources, so both current and future generations can benefit from them.

Reduce GHG

Reduce GHG emissions and support the transition to more sustainable economies.

Ensure people affected by climate change,

Ensure people affected by climate change, particularly those in vulnerable situations, have access to effective remedies and means of adaptation to enjoy human dignity. • Enable meaningful and effective participation of citizens, in particular women, youth, indigenous people and local communities, in policy processes, ensuring democratic practice.

Ensure the protection of human rights and environmental defenders

Ensure the protection of human rights and environmental defenders • Respond to ‘loss and damage’ caused by climate change with compensation and safety nets at national level, and disaster preparedness, participatory governance and microfinance at local level.

Increase funding for these climate actions.

Increase funding for these climate actions. Climate justice also means developed nations and emerging economies take responsibility for their historic emissions.

Break silos

Break silos between movements and CSOs, connect struggles and increase solidarity.

Developed nations must contribute funds and technologies so developing countries can address climate change and transition to more sustainable economies. This historic responsibility has been recognized by heads of state at summits from Rio de Janeiro (1992) to Copenhagen (2009) to Paris (2015), but developed nations have still failed to deliver on their responsibilities. 61 A strong movement, led by the groups most affected by climate change, can help to: • Ensure that people who are most impacted and have most at stake are at the frontline of designing, developing, implementing and monitoring climate action. • Apply a human rights lens62 to climate change. • Increase transparency and accountability in developing and implementing climate policies

Our Target Audience

Women

Women often show more concern for the environment, support pro-environmental policies and vote for pro-environmental leaders, so their greater involvement in politics and NGOs could result in environmental gains. Women’s responsibilities in households and rural communities position them to contribute to adaptive livelihood strategies, but this requires more recognition and visibility and more women in leadership positions.

Indeginous local communities

Local communities have traditional knowledge that gives them a unique role in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts and just transition policies.64 They must be seen as powerful agents of change and enabled to participate in developing climate policies. Research shows that giving legal rights to community forests can reduce deforestation and carbon emissions.

Youth

Youth can create and drive solutions to climate change, as shown by a survey conducted by African Youth Commission. This requires young people to be taken seriously: under-25s comprise 60% of Africa’s population, but have limited participation in decision making – including on climate-related issues. Cultural norms often dictate that elders make decisions and bar youth from community leadership roles.

Most at risk

Strategic Objective

A strong and inclusive African movement has mobilized citizens, companies and governments to advance climate justice, specifically contributing to:

Amplified voices of people who are disproportionately affected by the changing climate, and those offer solutions for a more sustainable future, such as women, youth and local and indigenous communities;

African narratives that highlight lived experiences of women, youth and local and indigenous communities impacted by climate change, and which can help change the terms of debate on climate change;

Empowered citizens/ communities that claim and defend their social and environmental rights;

Scoping and scaling of community-based best practices on adaptive capacities of climate frontline communities and;

Policy and practice change that prevent adverse impacts of climate change, support communities that are already affected, and enable the transition to more sustainable, and low carbon economies, while leaving no one behind.