Welcome to the third and final part of the interviews from our online activity “Climate Justice – Just a Game?”. The activity took place over two weekends and during the break, the participants had to prepare a 3-question interview.
If you have not read the first or the second part, please do so here (1) and here (2) to get a better understanding of the interview as a whole.
After hearing from the interviewees about climate injustices in their areas, this time the question was “What can be done to ensure Climate Justice?” and here are the answers:

Interviewer: Ana Belén Almagro
Interviewee: Alejandra Reyes, 26, Colombia

“First and most important, those who benefit economically from these activities acknowledge their responsibility and become aware of the implications that these communities and the environment are facing. In addition, implement and enforce strict regulations, monitoring and penalties when necessary and with no exceptions. Also, there should be a generous, ethical compensation in environmental, social and economic terms to the affected communities.”

Interviewer: Ana-Maria Gatejel
Interviewee: Minke S, 26, The Netherlands

“How I see it now, is that at least in NL, the injustices are externalized in other parts of the world, thus people feel disconnected from it on a day to day basis. Even though I grew up in an environmentally conscious family being mindful about resource use, it wasn’t until I lived in India that I experienced scarcity. I guess it is crucial, depending on where we live on this planet, to check our privilege and act accordingly. For example, being active supporting an environmental cause and questioning societal norms and practices, but also keeping ourselves curious and educated. I also feel that living in a city strips most of us of a deep connection with nature and the natural flows and rhythms, thus actively seeking to restore that connection is important.”

Interviewer: Angelika Kern
Interviewee: Daniela Nietsch, 37, Austria

“Don’t support those companies, elect parties, that emphasize climate goals and strategies and generally try to spread information about tactics such as that.”

Interviewer: Céline Steenbergen
Interviewee: Simone Lassauw, The Netherlands

“The huge contributors (countries and multinationals) need to take accountability for their actions and implement better policies and legislations to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. Besides this, human rights need to be taken more into account. There is a huge gap between rich countries and poor countries. It is important to address social inequality and to include local communities in the process of climate actions. Especially since local people have knowledge about their land.”

Interviewer: Davit Totadze
Interviewee: Nino D., 32, Georgia

In order to make some changes it is crucial for the topic to become part of the policy agenda, raise awareness not only in the population, but also in decision makers, to prevent social, civic and human right violations. Besides, multi-sector involvement would be more beneficial.”

Interviewer: Davide Viale
Interviewee: Sandra Rossi, 63, Italy

“Recycle, stop smoking, eat km0, and produce our own veggies.”

Interviewer: Francesco Mangiarini
Interviewee: Juan Antonio Pérez Lopez, 22, Spain

“Many things, but one of them is to involve everyone in decision making processes.”

Interviewer: Vanessa Quintal
Interviewee: Caroline Gouveia, 21, Portugal

“Climate Justice cannot be ensured if a holistic, innovative, high-quality education cannot be guaranteed to all citizens. It should be based upon pragmatic teaching and learning in-field. Education for sustainability should not only promote good, eco-friendly, sustainable practices but encourage the creation, development and implementation of local eco projects as well.”

Interviewer: Ilze More
Interviewee: Linda Ulāne, 32, Latvia

“First of all, promote a more minimalist life-style that includes the principles of refusing, reducing, reusing, upcycling etc. Educate people about the consequences of our everyday choices (our lunch, our outfit for a party, our holiday destination etc.). I feel that we are missing links between our actions and disasters that are hitting us more and more.”

Interviewer: Iringo Csakany
Interviewee: Emoke Szakady, 36, Switzerland

“Raise awareness, educate people on it. Also, politics seems to make things worse. I know there is a lot of money needed to tackle climate justice, and where’s money there is usually politics as well. But in this situation, it’s not good.”

Interviewer: Jannis Gustke
Interviewee: Michael Krauß, 35, Germany

“Nothing, Our planet is in a situation that makes it difficult to achieve global change. Many states have no interest in the necessary changes and the implementation of human rights also vary significantly from state to state.”

Interviewer: Karin van Os
Interviewee: Bart-Jaap Schuller, 24, The Netherlands

“I think that this is a combination of different approaches. And I want to stress that I think this combination is really the key for climate justice: changes in laws OR raising awareness OR changing in lifestyles is not enough: I think that change within all these aspects are needed in order to ensure long-term climate justice.”

Interviewer: Khadija Aliyeva
Interviewee: Ayan Shamchiyeva, 21, Azerbaijan 

“First of all, world leaders and authorities should take these issues seriously by creating systematic and long-term plans and most importantly, these plans should not stay on paper but to be implemented.”

Interviewer: Marica Farini
Interviewee: Caterina P., 22, Italy

“I believe that we can make young people more sensitive about this topic, organizing some activities and lessons at school with experts in this sector. Also, social networks are the engine of this society, so climate justice can be diffused through social media channels.”

Interviewer: Mehmet Selcuk Guclu
Interviewee: Tugay K., 26, Turkey

“Policy and practice solutions, such as energy strategies tied to emissions mitigation or flood resilience programs, have the potential to intensify disparities or be used to address various sources of disadvantage, thus contributing to the unequal effects of climate change and raising questions about distributional equity.”

Interviewer: Nazarena Plumb
Interviewee: Sarah Browne, 18, Ireland

“I think educating people is the key way to ensure climate justice. Our generation has done well so far thanks to people like Greta Thunberg but older generations are less reluctant to listen to or respect the severity of the situation. Simple things like reducing meat and fish intake can help, walking or cycling instead of driving where possible, waste management in your home, and using energy efficient appliances. All of these little things would make a world of difference if everyone did them but not everyone knows that they should, so educating people about effective ways they could make a difference is the key I think.”

Interviewer: Nicolas QUERO-RIO
Interviewee: Maxime QUERO-RIO, France

“Countries must put in place public policies to adapt and mitigate our environmental impact, in order to guarantee a healthier environment, in particular for the most fragile populations.”

Interviewer: Patricio
Interviewee: Aayush Verma, 25, India

• Recognize climate change victims and involve them in decision making to analyse the effects of climate changes.
• Reinforce and give more importance to human rights and equality among different communities, races and societies.
• The ones responsible should be held accountable. Carbon emissions should be checked starting from procurement of raw materials to point of sales.
• Create international institutions for better policies, more transparency and to solve these issues at a global level.
• Inculcate education and build awareness related to human rights and equality.

Interviewer: Selin Özbek
Interviewee: Hava O., 52, Turkey

“Recyclable fuel should be used, and an energy type that does not emit gas should be used. It is important to increase the filter system in the industry. Afforestation can be increased. Water pollution should be prevented.”

Interviewer: Sonia Premoli
Interviewee: Livia S., 38, United States

“Raise awareness and put political pressure on our political representatives so that they adopt, both locally and internationally, policies and regulations that 1) prevent climate changes and 2) restore the violation of human rights caused by climate changes.”