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Guide to climate justice for cultural organisations

This guide introduces the concept of climate justice and outlines the ways in which it is relevant to running arts and cultural organisations in Scotland. We developed this guide with the assistance of two discussion sessions held with Green Arts Initiative members and have integrated their comments and suggestions.

We cover the basics of climate justice:

And look at advice on specific climate justice issues:

The basics

What is climate justice?

‘Climate justice recognises humanity’s responsibility for the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the poorest and most vulnerable people in society by critically addressing inequality and promoting transformative approaches to address the root causes of climate change.’

Professor Tahseen Jafry
Mary Robinson Centre for Climate Justice, Glasgow Caledonian University

The term ‘climate justice’ expresses how climate change is a social and political issue as much as a technical or environmental one. Climate change interacts with and exacerbates existing inequalities. Action to address climate change can help to create a fairer society, but there is also a risk of actions discriminating or deepening inequalities. Discrimination and inequality inhibit effective action to tackle climate change.

In discussions we hosted, definitions of climate justice by members of the Green Arts Initiative shared an emphasis on the disproportionate impacts of climate change falling on already disadvantaged people, exacerbating existing inequalities. They raised the importance of taking responsibility for the large contributions the UK has made and continues to make to global emissions and sharing the burdens of climate change fairly.

Examples of some climate justice issues:

  • Pacific island nations (opens a PDF) have drawn attention to the fact that they are already suffering some of the worst impacts of sea level rise and acidification despite being among the nations that have contributed least to carbon emissions.
  • Black Lives Matter UK drew attention to the fact that black people and people of colour in the UK suffer disproportionately from air pollution. They protested expansion of London City airport on the grounds that its beneficiaries would be largely white and wealthy while the surrounding area has a high proportion of poorer ethnic minorities.
  • Campaigns to get a legislative ban on plastic straws were criticised by disability rights groups who felt that the ban would disproportionately affect people with certain disabilities such as cerebral palsy. Plans for the legislation have since been altered to accommodate this.
  • Since 2015 a series of escalating protests at the British Museum have drawn connections between the museum’s sponsorship by British Petroleum and both organisations’ relationship with the UK’s colonial history under the slogan ‘Stolen Land. Stolen Objects. Stolen Climate’.

And why is it relevant to Scottish arts organisations?

Climate justice’s insistence that climate change is a social as well as technical issue embraces the role that culture plays in bringing about social change. The complex interactions of climate change with existing inequalities and injustices is an area where the arts can play a role in developing understanding. It is an issue that artists and creatives as well as scientists and policy makers can clearly help tackle. The growing threats and impacts of climate change are increasingly intermingled with existing work by artists on addressing inequalities of gender, (dis)ability, class, sexuality, and others.

Many of the most severe inequalities raised by climate justice occur at an international level that can feel difficult for arts organisations here in Scotland to influence, but there are issues accessible on a more local level. Arts organisations already consider equalities, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and may encounter climate justice issues through the ways that this interacts with their environmental policy. Climate justice may also offer a frame for integrating the effects of climate change into existing work being done to tackle local inequalities.

In conversations, members of the Green Arts Initiative thought that some of the most important and readily tackled climate justice issues in Scotland are:

  • Migration and climate refugees
  • Urban-rural divides and remote communities
  • A ‘just transition‘ away from the North Sea oil industry
  • Understanding the global impact of local actions

We agreed that some of the most important roles for arts organisations are:

  • Promoting and developing understanding of climate justice, for example by providing a platform for people confronting climate justice issues or collaborating with social justice organisations.
  • Running ourselves in a climate just way, for example by ensuring that our mitigation or adaptation measures are not unjust.

The remainder of this guide focuses on these two categories and suggests broad actions followed by links to further resources and information on a range of more specific issues.

How can you run your organisation in a climate just way?

Ensuring that the work your organisation has direct control over takes into account all relevant climate justice issues. This can be summarised as:

  • Ensuring that environmental work carried out by your organisation, such as carbon management planning or measures to adapt to climate change, does not result in discrimination or deepening of inequalities.
  • Exploring where environmental aims may provide an opportunity to improve the EDI of your organisation or where improving EDI may benefit your environmental aims.

Actions will depend on the nature of your organisation and the context in which you operate, but some example steps are:

  • Combining or cross-referencing EDI and environmental policies to understand how they interact with and can reinforce each other.
  • Considering whether steps to improve the environmental impact of your organisation will affect social groups differently and, if necessary, provide special provision for this.
  • Getting advice from relevant bodies or organisations if you are uncertain about potential impacts of your green work. See the resources section below for some suggestions.
  • Having diversity in staffing, volunteers and collaborators to ensure an awareness of not increasing inequalities through environmental work. Evidence from the World Economic Forusm suggests that more diverse staffing has numerous benefits.

How can your organisation promote and develop understanding of climate justice?

You can use artistic programming, engagement work and your role within communities to contribute to creating a more climate just world; use your spheres of influence to contribute to bringing about broader change. Examples are:

  • Collaborating with local community and social justice organisations. This could be an opportunity to learn from each other as well as to reach new audiences.
  • Learning from climate change organisations led by communities who face increased impacts or exacerbated inequalities, such as the Indigenous Environmental Network.
  • Making a special effort to reach different people. There is a risk that environmental engagement work from arts organisations can end up reaching the same audience repeatedly. This may exclude groups who will be most affected by climate change or who encounter barriers to participation. Reaching audiences who have in the past been less involved with your organisation will make environmental messaging more impactful as well as growing your reach.
  • Working in collaboration with people from affected groups when creating artistic work that engages with climate justice issues, or providing a platform for people from affected groups to share their experiences.

Further resources


Advice on specific climate justice issues

It is important to bear in mind that issues are not discrete categories. People may experience a number of different inequalities in a number of different ways and these issues affect each other rather than occurring in isolation. Nevertheless, the following advice is divided up this way for the purpose of clarity.

Class and wealth inequality

From 2017 to 2020, the top 10% of the population had 21% more income than the bottom 40% combined and levels of poverty have been predicted to rise. Higher incomes strongly correlate with higher emissions and a more negative environmental impact, with the wealthy both on a local and international level tending to bear a greater responsibility for environmental damage. One study using data from a German study found that those who describe themselves as more environmentally conscious also tended to have a worse environmental impact, effectively because both of these correlate with higher income. Climate advocacy in the UK, especially from NGOs, has been strongly associated with the middle classes with people from lower income backgrounds having poorer representation. This chimes with longstanding concerns that the arts and culture sector tends to disproportionately benefit the upper and middle classes (opens a PDF).

Policies to tackle climate change may have co-benefits for reducing inequality (as shown in the Climate Justice Begins at Home research in the resources section above), with improvements to energy efficiency likely to also reduce fuel poverty for example. However, policies can also risk cutting out people with lower incomes. Infrastructure to support electric vehicles is likely to disproportionately work to the benefit of those with higher incomes. Active travel infrastructure like cycling lanes and bike storage can also see unequal distribution of benefits when this infrastructure tends to be concentrated in higher income areas. The Trades Union Congress has also emphasised the longstanding connection between fossil fuel extraction and the working classes and the need to recognise this in a ‘just transition’ away from the oil industry.

Actions will depend on the nature of your organisation and the context in which you operate, but some example steps are:

  • Seek collaboration with groups and campaigns who work on issues that have relevance for climate change and poverty such as public transport, fuel poverty or community energy.
  • If improving infrastructure for low carbon travel at your venues, you could consider working with organisations such as Sustrans or Paths for All for advice on how to ensure its broad usefulness.
  • Environmental messaging should fit audiences. It makes sense to speak to wealthier audiences about measures to reduce their own carbon footprints but for poorer audiences it may make more sense to focus on participation and empowerment.
  • Engaging poorer people in environmental outreach work may require additional effort to reduce financial barriers and lack of available time, which should be factored into planning.

Useful resources:

Decolonisation

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has now recognised that the legacy of colonialism is an important contributor to climate change as well as the global inequalities that make addressing climate change more difficult, an argument that has long been made by international climate justice movements. The European colonisation of other continents was facilitated by the industrial revolution and contributed to global inequalities that have made ‘western’ nations the major sources of greenhouse gases and left poorer countries with less resources to adapt to the effects of climate change.

Colonialism is also a major issue for the arts and culture sector. Most directly, museums in Scotland contain objects that were stolen from other countries during colonisation. Indirectly, many of the major cultural institutions in Scotland were established during colonial times and may still carry colonial ideologies through standard repertoire in theatre or opera for example. This has led to calls from within the arts sector for decolonisation of the arts sector and a greater reckoning with Scotland’s colonial history.

Actions will depend on the nature of your organisation and the context in which you operate, but an example step is:

  • Consider how work on bringing to light the ways that museum and gallery collections are implicated in colonial history can be connected with exhibitions and collections with a focus on climate change.

Useful resources:

Disability and long-term health conditions

People with existing physical disabilities or long-term health conditions are more adversely affected by climate change impacts. For example, extreme weather events or flooding that inhibit travel infrastructure have a greater impact on people with mobility issues while people with conditions like multiple sclerosis are more vulnerable to extreme heat. A 2018 UN report also found that disabled people tend to have reduced access to knowledge, resources and services to effectively respond to climate change. This is especially the case for people with learning disabilities, with very little information about climate change available in easy read formats for example.

Disabled voices have not always been well represented in climate change campaigning. An example of the effect of this can be found in campaigns for a ban on plastic straws, which were criticised by disability rights groups given that people with certain disabilities have a justifiable need for these straws and preventing this small demographic from using them would have a relatively minor environmental benefit. A similar situation arose over complaints about the environmental impact of inhalers.

Climate change mitigation strategies may also be less available for people with certain disabilities. For example, people with mobility issues may not be able to make use of walking or cycling infrastructure and there may be increased barriers to using public transport. People with certain disabilities or long-term health conditions may thus have a necessarily increased carbon footprint.

Actions will depend on the nature of your organisation and the context in which you operate, but some example steps are:

  • Provide plastic straws for people with relevant disabilities as per the exemptions to Scotland’s single-use plastics ban.
  • Digital and online resources can be a means of helping improve accessibility without substantially increasing emissions but be aware of the potential drawbacks of these as well. Most would agree that they cannot replace the live experience entirely and certain disabilities can inhibit access to devices like computers for example.
  • Check that adaptation and mitigation policies you adopt do not disproportionately affect people with disabilities. This may require a process of consultation.
  • Make information about your green work available in accessible formats. This is an example of a PDF report from the UN in Easy Read format.
  • Have a policy that devices such as lifts are for the use of people who need them (be aware that this need may not be visibly obvious).

Useful resources:

Immigration and refugees

Choose Love estimates there could be as many as 200 million climate refugees by 2050 – if emissions continue at the current rate – as a result of conflicts caused by reduced resources and increases in extreme weather events. Changes to temperature and rainfall could also force many to migrate to areas less severely impacted. Already, climate change has forced people to become refugees. Numbers of refugees are at the time of writing are estimated to be at their highest levels since the Second World War, a situation that is likely to be exacerbated by worsening climate change impacts.

As the UK has been one the largest contributors to emissions that cause climate change and has accrued wealth in the process, organisations, such as Friends of the Earth, argue that the UK should play a more active role in supporting and harbouring climate refugees as well as allowing more immigrants to settle here. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the scientific advisory body to the United Nations) also recognises the role of European colonialism, and subsequent impoverishment of other continents, as contributing to climate change.

Actions will depend on the nature of your organisation and the context in which you operate, but an example step is:

  • Working with refugee and migrant rights organisations to sensitively promote the issue of climate refugees through artistic or other means. An example of an artistic response to climate refugees here.

Useful resources:

Intergenerational justice

Younger generations will be more affected by climate change, despite its causes lying in the actions and decisions of older generations. Although the effects of climate change are already present, much more severe impacts are predicted by the end of the century. Action taken now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will mitigate these impacts while work on adapting to climate change will help protect people from impacts that are already unavoidable. Actions taken by decision-makers now are of great significance for young people today who will be navigating the future world as adults. As a result, the needs and perspectives of young people are of particular importance.

Actions will depend on the nature of your organisation and the context in which you operate, but an example step is:

  • School pupils are often the audiences for public engagement work by cultural organisations.
  • Think about how climate change public engagement aimed at this audience can highlight the perspectives of young people as well as educating them.
  • Work directly with youth-led climate change organisations like 2050 Climate Group on designing your environmental policies.
  • Think about ‘eco-anxiety’. As a group, young people in particular have cited climate change as a threat to their mental health. When working with young people on climate change, consider how you can promote wellbeing and support positive action.

Useful resources:

Race and ethnicity

Both the UK arts and culture and environmental charity sectors involve a disproportionately small number of Black and People of Colour (BPOC*) staff relative to the national population. According to a 2018 report from Create London, in the UK 2.7% of library, museum and gallery staff are from BPOC groups, 4.2% of film, TV and radio workers are from ethnic minority backgrounds as are 4.8% of music, performing and visual arts workers. In 2017, Students Organising for Sustainability found that 3.1% environment professionals identified as ethnic minorities. In the last UK census 13-14% of people described their ethnicity as black, Asian, mixed, or other minority ethnic group.

Environmental activism and advocacy have been criticised for systematically excluding connections to issues such as race by framing climate change in narrowly technical terms rather than socio-cultural ones. In 2015, a bloc of indigenous and global south activists was excluded from a march in London due to fears that their messaging was too political and not positive enough. Nevertheless, a 2019 survey (opens in a PDF) in the UK found that people who identified themselves as ‘black and minority ethnic’ were on average more committed to tackling climate change than people who described themselves as ‘white’.

People from ethnic minorities in the UK are more effected by climate change impacts and other environmental issues. For example, areas with higher levels of air pollution correlate with areas that have a larger proportion of ethnic minority communities. A 2023 report found that Black and ethnic minority communities are particularly vulnerable to air pollution in the UK. In Scotland, instances of poverty are higher among BPOC communities, making adaptation to climate change impacts more difficult.

Actions will depend on the nature of your organisation and the context in which you operate, but some example steps are:

  • Make connections with organisations working on climate justice and anti-racism in your area and think about how you might be able to collaborate.
  • When producing work or events with an environmental angle, seek to foreground the ways that the impacts of climate change are unevenly distributed, exacerbating existing inequalities such as race. Evidence from Climate Outreach suggests that framing climate change in this manner rather than in purely technical terms may lead to higher levels of engagement.
  • Seek to learn from ethnic minority groups with experience of resilience in the face of environmental injustice; this might involve researching work taking place abroad. For example, Culture and Climate Justice in South Africa.
  • The Climate & Development Knowledge Network suggests that in contexts where people of our own ethnicity are underrepresented, we may be less likely to actively choose to participate, meaning that working with BPOC audiences on climate change may require careful outreach to make your work accessible.

Useful resources:

  • Climate Reframe ‘highlights Black, Brown, Asian, People of Colour and UK based Indigenous Peoples who are climate experts, campaigners and advocates living and working in the UK’. It includes a section on ‘cultural creatives’.
  • The Ethnic Minority Environmental Network run by CEMVO Scotland creates connections between ethnic minority groups and individuals, and mainstream organisations addressing climate change and climate justice in Scotland.
  • There are a number of organisations highlighting BPOC artists in Scotland including Fringe of Colour, Scottish BPOC Writers Network and We are Here Scotland.
  • Regional Equality Councils across Scotland ‘work to support and empower minority communities, particularly in relation to tackling prejudice and discrimination, promoting community cohesion and connections’. Check in your local area.
  • SCORE Scotland is a charity that ‘works in partnership with others to address the causes and effects of racism and to promote race equality’.
  • BEMIS ‘is the national Ethnic Minorities led umbrella body supporting the development of the Ethnic Minorities Voluntary Sector in Scotland and the communities that this sector represents’.

*We use the term BPOC here and elsewhere on our website as we feel it’s the best available currently, but we do acknowledge its limitations and understand that people may embrace different terms based on how they self identify.

Remote and rural communities

Adaptation Scotland says people living in more remote and rural areas are likely to suffer worse climate change impacts such as flooding and may be less involved in decision making processes, which are centred in urban areas. Climate change causes such as fossil fuel power stations, mines, and refineries located in rural areas may also have local impacts such as pollution that city dwellers are not actively aware of. This is significant in the context of arts and culture, given that a majority of arts and culture organisations are based in cities – over half of Green Arts Initiative member organisations are based in either Glasgow or Edinburgh.

There is also concern that efforts to reduce the travel emissions associated with arts and culture can negatively impact people living in remote and rural areas. If organisations do not tour, then people may lose their access to live arts. Digital or online approaches can be less effective in remote areas where slower internet speeds can be a barrier. Public transport is more limited in rural areas and the need to travel longer distances may preclude walking or cycling for some people.

Actions will depend on the nature of your organisation and the context in which you operate, but some example steps are:

  • Strategic use of touring may reduce travel emissions if we factor in audience travel. Rather than having large numbers of audience members travel into cities to attend events (often by car) a smaller number of performers could travel to local centres, reducing the level of travel required overall.
  • Touring practice could also shift to focus less on touring internationally, often to existing cultural centres, and more on touring locally to areas with less access to arts and culture. Tours can also be planned carefully to minimise the amount of travel necessary.
  • Online resources and events can also be useful, while considering the potential drawback of reduced internet speeds in remote areas.
  • Given that more arts organisations and arts employees are based in urban areas, artistic work engaging with environmental issues may be skewed towards an urban perspective (e.g. traffic pollution gaining more attention that soil erosion) that work could be done to re-balance through regional touring or engagement work.

Useful resources:

Sex and gender

Gender inequalities in many societies mean that women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men, with for example women globally having more caring responsibilities or less independence. Discrimination can also mean that sexual and gender minorities suffer worse from climate-related impacts.

In the arts in Scotland, highly paid and seniors are more likely to be held by men, with a 2016 Creative Scotland survey finding that 44% of women cited gender as a barrier to career progression in the arts. Criticisms have also been made of the fact that a majority of influential climate scientists and spokespeople have been men, leading to potential bias in terms of which issues are emphasised. This is in spite of multiple studies, as noted by Yale’s programme on Climate Change Communication, suggesting that women are if anything on average more likely to be concerned about climate change. Enabling more equal involvement from women in the response to climate change in the arts could help broaden expertise and make work more effective.

Actions will depend on the nature of your organisation and the context in which you operate, but some example steps are:

  • Developing programming that explicitly explores gender-diverse climate leaders and how we perceive them. Suggestions from Green Arts Initiative members include Jane Goodall, Greta Thunberg and Wangari Maathai.
  • Learning from work previously done within feminist circles to create accessible spaces for discussion on climate change, which helps us overcome the power dynamics and barriers to participation.

Useful resources:

  • The Gender and Environment Resource Centre provides ‘knowledge on gender and environment issues, innovative approaches, technical support, policy developments and capacity building to ensure gender equality and environment outcomes are realized’.
  • The Women’s Environmental Network ‘works on issues that connect gender, health and the environment’.
  • Engender is ‘Scotland’s feminist policy and advocacy organisation’.
  • The Equality Network ‘works for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) equality and human rights in Scotland’.
  • Green Arts Initiative member, the Glasgow Women’s Library has a wide range of resources on their website including some that explore intersections with climate change.

This guide is part of Culture for Climate Scotland’s resources for our Green Arts Initiative community: a network of cultural organisations in Scotland committed to reducing their environmental impact.

We updated the guide most recently in December 2024. A prior update in 2022 was part of Local Journeys for Change (LJC), the new IETM programme for IETM members aimed to empower them to bring positive change to their local professional context, local communities or policy-making field.

 

For this edition of the programme, focused on the theme of Inclusivity, Equality and Fairness, the LJC selection committee selected 24 projects led by IETM members from 22 countries worldwide. They will benefit from training, mentorship, peer-review exchange and financial support to implement their projects in their respective local communities.