The link between climate justice and Gaza

In October, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg stood on a podium in a pro-Palestinian rally in Italy and declared that there can be "no climate justice on occupied land." 

She shouted to her fellow protestors, "If you, as a climate activist, don't also fight for a free Palestine and an end to colonialism and oppression all over the world, then you should not be able to call yourself a climate activist."

This is not the first time Thunberg spoke on Palestine in reference to climate change. 

The poster child of environmental activism came under fire in December 2023 for penning an article stating that she and the Swedish chapter of the youth-led climate movement she founded called "Fridays For Future", would never stop speaking about Palestine—linking the climate justice movement to the liberation of Palestine. 

The Germany chapter of "Fridays For Future" has been pressured to distance themselves from Greta's statements. Many of her previous supporters have also expressed their disappointment at her for including "ideology" into what should be a "neutral" issue.

However, no criticism in the past has been able to deter Greta before, and no criticism now has been able to shake her uncompromising stance on this either.

So, what exactly is climate justice? And why do environmental activists like Greta link climate justice to the liberation of Palestine?

In 2001, the UN established 6 November as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict. 

So, this year, we take a look at what climate justice really means and how it relates to Palestine.

Greta Thunberg's insistence on connecting the Palestinian cause to the climate cause is not a strategic failure. It is a strategic imperative.

The shift to climate justice

For a long time, discourse surrounding climate change was about the harmful effects of greenhouse gases and melting ice caps. It was seen as a neutral and apolitical issue that everyone could get behind as it affected everyone on the planet equally.

Increasingly, though, scientific reports have shown that the effects of climate change have a disproportionate impact on historically marginalised groups, such as indigenous people. 

Indeed, even as Gaza struggles with the existential threat posed by Israel, it also finds itself on the frontlines of the climate crisis, losing what little land they have left to rising sea levels.

The term "climate justice" was borne out of the necessity to recognise the injustices inherent in climate change. It acknowledges that those who will bear the brunt of the problems caused by climate change first are the most vulnerable and poor nations, whose carbon emissions pale in comparison to larger nations.

The advocates of climate justice argue that climate change is not an apolitical issue but rather intricately linked to social justice. They seek to address the inequality present in climate change discourse, policy, and impact.

The biased nature of "neutrality" in science is a story as old as time. 

In a 2021 study published in the Nature journal, scientists found that even though the Global South is facing the worst impacts of climate change while being the least responsible for producing carbon emissions, research that investigates the impacts of climate change on the Global South is likely to take place twice as little as research on high-income countries.

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, "as is always the case, the poor and the vulnerable are the first to suffer and the worst hit."

In order to sufficiently address the inequalities and injustices of climate change, climate activists maintain that we cannot ignore the colonial roots of climate change. 

Colonialism was a concept that championed the plundering of distant lands, extracting resources from those lands, and oppressing the local population. The legacies of colonialism play a role in policymaking to this day.

Famous climate activist and author of "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate," Naomi Klein argues that the climate crisis is not possible to address without taking a stance against the current era of neoliberal market capitalism championed by Western nations.

As an example, the United States of America is the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases and also the biggest supporter of Israel's practice of settler-colonialism against Palestine.

After years of protests and activism by indigenous scholars, climate activists and scholars, the mainstream is finally starting to catch up.

In 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report where they addressed colonialism for the first time.

"Present development challenges causing high vulnerability are influenced by historical and ongoing patterns of inequity such as colonialism, especially for many Indigenous peoples and local communities," the report stated.

"​​Officials and scientists from around the globe now recognise the significant role colonialism has played in heating our planet and destroying its many gifts."

Climate Justice and Palestine

According to the United Nations (UN), we always tend to think of the damages caused by war in terms of lives lost and cities destroyed, but "the environment has often remained the unpublicised victim of war. Water wells have been polluted, crops torched, forests cut down, soils poisoned, and animals killed to gain military advantage."

This 6 November, Palestine stands out as a beacon of this exploitation.

Last year, the United Nations held their annual climate change summit, known as Conference of the Parties (COP). The event, COP28, was held in Dubai just two months removed from the start of Israel's indiscriminate bombing of Gaza after 7 October.

A study conducted by researchers in the UK and US revealed that in just two months, carbon emissions generated by the bombs Israel dropped in Gaza had surpassed the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 countries that are most vulnerable to climate change. 

Israel's barrage of attacks was contributing vastly to the climate crisis while being backed by the likes of America and Germany- two of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions in the world.

In light of this, the climate summit could no longer ignore the consequences of military contributions to environmental destruction. For the first time, the 2023 "Emissions Gap" report released by the UN Environment Programme every year before the summit mentioned the role that war, conflict, and military emissions play in worsening climate change. It concluded that more research is needed on this topic.

Meanwhile, Israel has spent the last year polluting Gaza's water wells, torching their crops, cutting down their forests, poisoning their soils, and killing their animals.

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report states, "Five of the six solid waste management facilities in Gaza are damaged (…) Families are now burning garbage, wood, and plastic as a result of a lack of cooking gas, which has made air quality in Gaza worse. Fires and burning fuel stores caused by the war have exacerbated the situation further. 

As a result of the closure of the five wastewater treatment facilities in Gaza, sewage has contaminated beaches, coastal aquifers and sources of freshwater. Soil has been polluted with a variety of contaminants including microplastics and dangerous chemicals."

The destruction of the people and land of Gaza has been going on for decades. After the founding of Israel, once Palestinians were expelled to the Gaza Strip, Israel diverted the Jordan River and uprooted most of the local olive trees to plant eucalyptus trees, which dried out the land. 

This process is known as "Desertification" and also has colonial roots.

In light of the violent and destructive nature of Israeli settler-colonialism, and the unabashed support from Western countries, more and more climate activists are drawing similar conclusions. The fight for the environment is a systemic and political issue, one that cannot be untangled from the fight against social and economic justice. 

Greta Thunberg's insistence on connecting the Palestinian cause to the climate cause is not a strategic failure. It is a strategic imperative.

There can be no neutrality when addressing climate change. It is an issue that will come first for those least responsible for causing it—the vulnerable and the oppressed. The fight for climate justice and the fight for a free Palestine are the same fight, just different fronts.

All eyes will be on COP29 as it begins on 11 November, 2024, in Azerbaijan.  How will the UN respond?