Seventeenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

What is climate justice? What is evolving? And what is our role? Collective demands for action on climate change have resonated around the world among those most impacted. Countries, communities, and people ignored by political and industrial decision-makers have found a common voice. The climate is changing even as those same decision-makers look away from the harm being done to rely on the same economic and political systems that have led the charge of unfettered acquisition for hundreds and hundreds of years. Where is the justice for those who are affected by rising sea levels, drought, and firestorms, the populations moved out of the way of development to the benefit of the few? We worry that climate justice may only focus on the negative (the punishments for bad behaviour). Many organizations, communities, and governments are seeking to create shared value. There is a very real opportunity to move together to a new economic, environmental, and social paradigm. This twenty-first century evolution depends on the identification of new ways of doing business that reflect the full measurement of the impacts of business and political initiatives to hold positive and negative accountability for all outcomes. These are very complex and ever-changing relationships. The challenge we have yet to take on is to consider the whole and to make our future matter to everyone. Critical parts need to be dreamed and created to direct, incentify, finance, and collaborate in the development of new systems.