Next week, hundreds of policymakers from all over the world will meet at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York for the first Summit for the Future. By the end of it, the UN will adopt the Pact for the Future, a document outlining what steps the organisation and its members will take to protect future people. The topic on everyone’s mind will of course be Climate Change, a topic that interests us greatly here at CEPPA.
Last May we were delighted to host a group of scholars for the ‘Climate Justice: Transdisciplinary and Cross-cultural Conversations‘ conference as part of the St Andrews Climate Week. Based on the insights from this workshop we present to you St Andrews Statement on Intergenerational and Cross-Cultural Climate Justice, a document outlining how global institutions can interact with Indigenous and other
marginalised communities to meet the demands of climate justice and our responsibilities to future generations. This document was sent to UN officials last week and we hope it will help shape the Pact for the Future.
The St Andrews Statement on Intergenerational and Cross–Cultural Climate Justice.
Insights and Recommendations from the ‘Climate Justice: Transdisciplinary and Cross– cultural Conversations’ conference.
Understanding how global institutions can interact with Indigenous and other marginalised communities to meet the demands of climate justice and our responsibilities to future generations is critical. To engage with these issues, this conference, held at the University of St Andrews 29–30 May 2024, brought together scholars and practitioners spanning multiple cultures and disciplines from St Andrews and beyond. This document summarises the key insights and policy recommendations generated.
Key Insights:
1. Knowledge: Cultivating transdisciplinarity is critical to solving the complex issues we collectively face. Creating space for diverse knowledges and enabling cross–cultural collaboration is vital to meeting the challenges to climate justice and motivating intergenerational responsibility–taking. Collaboration requires relationship (re)building, mutual–respect, and partnership.
2. Practice: The climate crisis is unfolding within the context of a colonial history that continues to impact Indigenous and other marginalized local communities. Preserving and cultivating Indigenous practices and practitioners is essential to restoring Indigenous and other marginalized communities and enriching global approaches to climate resilience. This underscores the need to protect communities that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as displacement and the loss of ancestral lands.
3. Governance: Local and global systems that enable planetary protection and intergenerational representation are critical. Our failure to implement such systems perpetuates longstanding injustices and undermines the effectiveness of climate action. Policy and governance systems that foster responsibilities that extend beyond immediate geographic and temporal boundaries is vital to building global solidarity and motivating action to address climate change.
The conference makes the following recommendations:
1. Enable Transdisciplinary and Cross–Cultural Dialogue: Establish forums and platforms to facilitate dialogue between disciplines and cultures. Promote mutual understanding and collaboration between Indigenous and non–Indigenous communities in ways that support collective solution–finding and action.
2. Acknowledge and Address Colonial Legacies: Ensure that climate policies acknowledge the ongoing impacts of colonialism and work to rectify historical injustices by supporting Indigenous–led initiatives.
3. Protect Vulnerable Cultures: Implement measures to safeguard the cultural practices and lands of Indigenous peoples, recognizing their intrinsic connection to identity and resilience.
4. Incorporate Indigenous Communities: Co–develop policies with Indigenous and other marginalized communities that include these communities in climate action strategies at all levels of governance.
5. Establish New Future–Oriented Global Institutions: Support the creation of global institutions with significant autonomy, free from the immediate pressures of contemporary governance, ensuring decisions that transcend contemporary biases and take properly into account future generations.
6. Promote Accountability: Ensure mutual accountability between this global institution and other major institutions, avoiding unilateral vetoes.
7. Ensure Functional Adequacy: Design this global institution to produce effective, broad, and foundational recommendations addressing global intergenerational issues.
This report has been written by Miguel de la Cal Moreno and Luca Stroppa. It is a synthesis of the research presented at the conference on Climate Justice by Althea Davies, Stephen M. Gardiner, Marco Grix, Simon Hope, Tahseen Jafry, Nina Laurie, Mariaelena Huambachano, Tasneem Mirza, Tania Mendo, Roger Merino, Te Kahuratai Moko-Painting, Quân Nguyen, Billy van Uitregt and Krushil Watene. The conference was organised by James Rae, Mara van der Lugt and Krushil Watene. Both presenters and organizers, provided comments and feedback on this document. Krushil Watene in particular, provided extremely valuable and thorough edits. Sarah Bennison and Laura Pels Ferra also provided helpful comments. For more information or advice please email [email protected].
You can download a copy of the statement here and another version with illustrations here.