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3 Inspiring Examples of Climate Justice Around the World

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Michael Sheldrick is a policy entrepreneur and a driving force behind the efforts of Global... Read More

A popular image of Barbados' Prime Minister Mia Mottley

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or in steadfast denial, you know we face a steep road ahead to slash emissions in time to avoid catastrophic climate change. Amid this urgency, a critical question remains: what about the livelihoods of communities already impacted by Climate change or the impending transition? Will the race to net-zero emissions trample their interests, sacrificing them in the name of climate action? This is where climate justice comes in. It ensures that the benefits and burdens of climate action are fairly distributed, protecting vulnerable communities. Here are three inspiring examples of climate justice projects worldwide and the lessons we can learn from them.

An Australian Coal Community’s Just Transition

Coal is no longer economically feasible in much of the world, but coal communities are often unprepared for the transition. History is full of examples of transitions gone wrong from northern England to South Africa. These failures have led communities to view “just transition” skeptically, often seeing it as a euphemism for job loss.

However, a small coal town in Western Australia (“WA”) provides a best-practice example of how to shut down the world’s remaining 2,400 coal-fired power stations without sacrificing the communities that rely on them.

Collie, home to 7,500 residents, has powered WA for over a century. As the WA Government pushes to move away from coal, the Collie community and local unions are developing a just transition model that truly works for everyone. Unlike other regions where unions and governments often clash, key WA union leaders, like Steve McCartney, recognized coal’s inevitable decline early on. Yet, they also emphasized community leadership in shaping the town’s future, embodying the principle: “Nothing about Collie’s future, without Collie’s input.”

To that end, McCartney recruited Alex Cassie, a former Australian diplomat, to organize the community. Their efforts focused on understanding community needs, emphasizing the importance of local employment over mere job availability. This approach aimed to prevent the disruption seen in other towns, where “fly-in, fly-out” jobs eroded community cohesion. The community envisioned a diverse, sustainable economy for Collie, believing that encouraging green industries such as battery production through active WA Government investment would secure a prosperous future. This strategy promised jobs and a continuation of community life and identity.

Of course, the community needed to persuade key decision-makers of the benefits of their strategy. They argued that Collie’s experienced energy workforce and existing infrastructure, like transmission lines, could save costs on new developments and worker training elsewhere. Cassie and her partners meticulously mapped out key decision-makers, including politicians and government officials, and contacted anyone relevant to discuss the benefits of investing in Collie’s future. Cassie even contacted a senior decision-maker via LinkedIn to request a conversation about the workers’ concerns, and he agreed. “That’s often how it happens,” Cassie noted.

The community also adopted a pragmatic approach. Despite past tensions with environmentalists—who often protested outside power plants—the community engaged young climate activists to generate ideas about green energy industry opportunities that could find a home in Collie. “That was the first time the [coal] workforce listened to an environmentalist,” McCartney later observed.

The community’s proactive strategy delivered tangible results. In June 2022, the WA government announced the shutdown of Collie’s power plants by 2029, pledging A$200 million to attract new industries like battery production and advanced manufacturing and A$300 million for power plant decommissioning and employment Support. This was further bolstered by an additional A$100 million for tourism and community development, totaling over A$600 million in government investment in Collie’s future.

Sustained advocacy and public pressure have maintained community trust and accountability throughout the transition. By June 2023, the government awarded an A$1 billion contract to build battery energy storage systems in Collie, creating 500 construction jobs. The town has also seen visible improvements, with renovated buildings on the main street winning recognition and heritage awards. New adventure sports companies and state-funded infrastructure, such as mountain bike trails, attract visitors and revitalize the community.

More often than not, just transitions don’t succeed because of poor implementation: “It doesn’t work because it’s not just,” as McCartney reflected. Today, however, Collie’s story stands as a beacon of hope for communities worldwide facing similar changes. Unions were upfront with workers about job declines, maintaining trust through regular meetings and advocacy and ensuring community ownership of the transition process. Astute community organizing laid the groundwork, announcing that power plants’ retirement would be welcomed as Collie embraced change.

Cassie would later reflect on the day when the closure of Collie’s power plants was announced, observing, “The ability of the [Government] to come to town without being run out on a rail was the culmination of years of work from… us, locals, and others. The [community’s positive] response—a day I’ll always remember—was not a starting point in the transition but a marker of success.”

Finding the Money to Withstand Extreme Weather Events

Barbados, like many climate-vulnerable nations, faces a dual challenge. It deals with the immediate impact of rising extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, which can devastate entire economies in hours, as seen with Hurricane Maria’s impact on Dominica in 2017. At the same time, these countries struggle with high debt levels, diverting funds toward loan servicing rather than building resilient infrastructure against natural disasters.

Against this backdrop, Barbados’ Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, helped achieve what has been described to me as the best policy innovation of 2023: Natural Disaster “Pause Clauses.” It’s a remarkable example of policy entrepreneurship in the face of an otherwise insurmountable challenge.

In 2022, Mottley gained international recognition in climate circles following her impactful speech at Glasgow’s 2021 COP26 UN climate talks. Building on this momentum, she launched a global campaign urging institutions like the World Bank to adopt these clauses in loans to climate-vulnerable countries like Barbados. Inspired by how wealthy nations supported their citizens during the pandemic—such as pausing student loans and mortgage repayments—Mottley questioned why a similar approach couldn’t be applied to loans owed by countries like hers to institutions like the World Bank in the wake of natural disasters.

The concept was straightforward: a predefined “pause clause” in loan agreements would activate automatically in the event of a natural disaster, allowing the affected country to halt repayments for up to 2 years temporarily. This provided a crucial time for recovery and resilience building. If implemented across all of Barbados’ loans, such clauses could unlock up to $700 million—equivalent to 15% of its economy—surpassing the impact of any other form of relief aid package.

As the leader of a small nation, Mottley’s success can be primarily attributed to her skillful collaboration with diverse partners within the Bridgetown Initiative coalition, named after Barbados’ capital city. By bringing together various civil society organizations and foundations, including major supporters like the Rockefeller and Open Society Foundations, the Initiative secured significant funding for campaigns and advocacy efforts. With this Support, groups like Global Citizen mobilized millions of citizens worldwide, urging them to call on their governments and the World Bank to endorse Pause Clauses. This widespread effort garnered over 250,000 tweets, emails, letters, and phone calls. Moreover, more than 80 non-governmental organizations and think tanks, such as the ONE Campaign and the Pandemic Action Network, endorsed the campaign. Notably, influential figures like Rihanna publicly called out the World Bank’s president, Ajay Banga, on social media just before a financing summit in Paris organized by French President Emmanuel Macron.

This collective effort reached its pinnacle when Banga appeared alongside Mottley at a Global Citizen-organized event during the Macron Summit in June 2023. In front of 20,000 people and renowned recording artists like Billie Eilish and Lenny Kravitz, Banga pledged to introduce Pause Clauses by the end of 2025. Nearly a year later, in June 2024, the World Bank board approved integrating Pause Clauses into new and existing loan agreements with Barbados. This achievement, spearheaded by Mottley’s Bridgetown Initiative, is a tangible outcome that will benefit Barbados during future natural disasters. Not content with this success, Mottley has launched the third iteration of the Bridgetown Initiative, introducing a revised set of solutions to aid climate-vulnerable countries further.

Ensuring Equity One Tree at a Time

Extended periods of extreme heat pose considerable public health risks, disproportionately affecting communities along socio-economic lines. In the U.S., neighborhoods with more tree coverage experience less direct heat; unsurprisingly, wealthier neighborhoods tend to have more trees. This disparity highlights the concept of tree equity—or inequity.

Jad Daley, CEO and president of American Forests, has decades of experience building coalitions and securing billions of dollars to protect and expand forests. He leveraged this expertise to popularize tree equity, engaging groups previously uninvolved in the environmental movement and developing a Tree Equity Score to measure the state of tree equity across the U.S. By reaching out to advocates of racial discrimination and economic injustice, especially in inner-city areas, Daley helped build a movement demonstrating how increased tree coverage in urban areas can mitigate extreme heat and improve public health.

American Forests brought together many stakeholders, including even the most left-leaning environmental groups, by investing in relationship-building through private meetings and discussions. They agreed to set aside specific issues temporarily to advance the climate agenda, resulting in a broad and trusted coalition committed to long-term goals.

Jad Daley told me, “The cool part is, we walked up there as the most diverse coalition ever seen in the US [on the climate front]. We presented a plan with agreements on issues people never thought we’d agree on. Even after all these years, that same team is still together.”

In the 117th Congress of 2021 and 2022, this coalition seized a crucial opportunity to unite behind comprehensive policy change to ensure tree equity was part of the successfully passed Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Today, funding is swiftly flowing to Support reforestation and Conservation efforts, including $1.5 billion for tree planting in American cities, making the idea of tree equity a reality. Indeed, of this earmarking, more than $1 billion has already been granted to communities in need.

Call to Action

In each case, the transformation from ideas to action—Just Transition, Natural Disaster Pause Clauses, or Tree Equity—required bold policy entrepreneurship. While each story differs, they share common traits. Clear policy goals were set, and mere awareness raising was insufficient. These policy entrepreneurs pragmatically recruited new allies, bridged divides to form powerful coalitions, and collaborated with unlikely partners to gain political Support. They didn’t let perfection hinder progress or division derail their efforts. Instead, they exhibited tenacity and meticulous attention to detail to ensure tangible results. These stories of policy entrepreneurship provide a roadmap for all of us to tackle climate injustice at any level. It’s the only way forward if we’re to address our collective planetary crises with the urgency they demand.