Climate Change hurts people

In recent years there has been a shift in the debate about climate change. There is now no question that human induced climate change is happening, the debate now centres on how much and how fast the world's climatic patterns will change. Still missing from this debate is the human dimension, particularly the impacts of climate change on the planet's poorest people. Climate justice addresses global warming by looking at who is hurt, how they will be hurt and who is responsible. It examines the human rights perspective of what has been, until now, a debate focused on science, consumption patterns and emission levels.

Climate Injustice: stealing from the global commons

Australia threatened to walk out of the Kyoto Protocol negotiations if parties to the conference refused to allow an increase in our national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. These tactics secured an agreement to allow Australia an 8% increase of emissions over 1990 levels. Since then Australia has exceeded this unfair entitlement and now emits around 16% over 1990 levels.

Australia has the highest per capita GHG emission rates on the planet at about 26.7 tonnes per person. This is twice the average level of other wealthy countries (13.4 tonnes) and 25% higher than emissions per person in the United States (21.2 tonnes). Our energy intensive economy and lifestyle is typical of the developed world, which is responsible for over 80% of all GHG emissions. Australia, with only 19 million people produces 1.4% of global emissions. The US, with 4% of the world's population produces about 25% of global GHG emissions.

In 1990 global emissions of CO2 were 22.3 billion tonnes. The IPCC maintain that a 60% reduction is required to avoid 'unpredictable and dangerous' climate change. This means that the atmosphere may be able to accommodate 8.9 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions a year. Assuming everyone has equal rights to the Earth's atmosphere, an estimated sustainable emission rate is about 1.47 tonnes per capita per year. Collectively, Australians are using 18 times more of the atmosphere than we are entitled to.