It seems like every month, Australia is party to a new climate agreement, and another study is released which finds that climate change is affecting more communities, is becoming more deadly, is affecting more people and animals and disrupting livelihoods.
Most recently, a report released in June 2023 in JAMA Psychiatry about Intimate Partner Violence Among Partnered Women in Low- and Middle-Income South Asian Countries found a link between temperature rise and the increase in domestic violence in the South Asian countries of Nepal, Pakistan, and India.
Between 2010 to 2018, it was found that a 1°C increase in average annual temperature was connected to a rise of more than 6.3 per cent in incidents of physical and sexual domestic violence.
For families whose livelihoods depend on agricultural work, the droughts induced by climate change lead to a total lack or reduction in income. Researchers said this leads to family financial crises and violent events. For example, in India, the extreme heat creating drought in May and June 2023, saw a regret and repeat cycle of abuse perpetrated by men who lost work in the fields.
These findings are not just limited to these three countries. Climate change affects women disproportionately worldwide, with women in Kenya and Madrid who experienced severe weather events, such as heat waves having 60 per cent higher odds of reporting intimate partner violence and a 40 per cent increase in the risk of intimate partner femicides, respectively.
In Australia, following the Black Saturday Bushfires, 30 women and almost all of the 47 workers interviewed reported an increase in community or domestic violence.
This is not to say that this justifies domestic violence. However, it’s critical we start recognising that the impacts of climate change go beyond just environmental impacts. This kind of evidence makes clear that climate action is not enough. It is climate justice that we need.
Climate justice recognises the intersectionalities between environmental issues – the bushfires, floods and heatwaves and sea level rise and droughts, and their effect on marginalised groups, women, Indigenous peoples, and children on those on the frontlines.
It is this understanding of climate justice that seems to be lacking in Australia.
In Australia, we seem to join a climate agreement, sign a treaty promising to reduce our emissions and set realistic targets. This performative climate action is more hurtful than refusing to join these agreements. Australia is made to appear as if it is taking climate change seriously.
Australia recently joined the Climate Club alliance. The Club is a group of countries that are encouraged to voluntarily set bolder environmental targets to pursue net zero emissions by 2050 and also to require their trading partners to meet those standards.
Australia is already party to the Paris Agreement, which requires countries to work to keep temperature rise between 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius.
The Paris Agreement came into force in 2016. It was a major step forward in international efforts to address climate change. We are also party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol.
We recently legislated the safeguard mechanism which purports to set legislated limits on the greenhouse gas emissions of these industrial facilities.
However, it’s one thing to be a member, pass legislation and make speeches about Australia’s “ambitious climate goals”. It’s another to actually implement these steps.
First, to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, Australia must reduce its emissions by 43% (from 2005 emissions levels) by 2030. However, between 2021-22, Australia produced 422 million tonnes of coal. That results in 1.1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in just one year.
Second, Australia has approved two new mines and three new coal mines or expansions with 116 million tonnes of lifetime emissions. The decision to approve mines, to have weak climate goals, has the most significant impact on vulnerable communities thousands of kilometres from us.
Australia’s performative climate action shows us two things.
First, we clearly have the resources to fund climate justice based solutions if we can spend millions going to climate conferences such as the COP and spend time legislating bills.
Second, since Australia has the resources, we need to be part of global climate solutions, to minimise the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities.
It is not that countries in the Global South do not have the means or are not doing enough to prevent these impacts. Countries such as India began fighting for climate justice in the 1970s with the women led Chipko movement. Rather, Australia – as the third largest exporter of coal and a “developed nation” – has a greater sense of responsibility to fix the mess we made.
The answer to this does not lie in just building renewables on land, one to which sovereignty has never been ceded in Australia, investing in carbon capture technology which has had its integrity questioned time and time again, nor joining treaties and alliances promising to reduce emissions.
The answer lies in climate justice.
Yes, this takes more time, but the answer to climate change is not a quick fix. It requires consultation with communities on the frontlines, with First Nations Peoples and understanding Australia’s role in the world context.
Feature Image: Varsha Yajman.