Historically, the G7 states are responsible for the biggest part of global environmental destruction and carbon emissions[1]. In the name of “democracy” / “civilization”, they have forwarded their imperialist dominance and colonial exploitation: they have looted countries, for example, of the African or South American continent like treasure chests of resources. Through oppression and exploitation, they helped large agro-industrial and fossil corporations to accumulate great wealth. Even today, the G7 nations secure the profit maximization of those destructive corporations on behalf of “progress” through their instrument of power, state debts. Through state debts, the world bank and the IMF maintain neocolonial dynamics of exploitation which make it impossible for postcolonial countries to put a stop to destructive corporations such as BP (UK), Chevron & Cargill (USA), Bayer & Wintershall (Germany), Nutrien (Canada), Agip (Italy), TotalEnergies (France) and many more[2].
We are headed for a global average temperature increase of 3 degrees and more[3]. Already now this means drought, hunger, forced migration and death to hundreds of millions and it will worsen. The corporations are doing everything to divide society over the question of individual consumption while the capitalist states protect exactly these corporations. The governments of the G7 nations participate in the corporate greenwashing and speak of “progress” for a “sustainable planet” and “sustainable economic activity”[4]. Their inadequate reactions to the situation’s severity are maybe best shown in Germany’s 100-billion-euro investment into militarization instead of an energy transition which could actually tackle Putin’s war. Instead of reducing the climate-heating production down to the population’s needs, they euphemize their carbon levels by externalizing their production and the export of waste to low-income countries. Or they become “climate neutral” by investing into questionable, oftentimes neocolonial “environmental projects” in other countries[5] while their own coal plants are kept running. The corporation owners who decide on a daily basis in which way of destructive production they maximize their profits are left untouched by such policies. Thus, technological approaches alone will not solve the climate crisis, as it is a systemic problem: serious climate protection is not in the interest of the powerful.
This is most harshly felt by people living in coastal areas who are affected by the sea level rise such as Bangladesh. People who live in direct proximity to toxic dump sites for example in India. People in postcolonial countries whose subsistence farming has been destroyed and who are now forced to consume products of the G7 states for example. People who live in direct dependency of nature such as indigenous communities in the Amazon rainforest. People who live in regions contaminated by oil catastrophes such as the Niger delta. Women who have to provide food and care work under patriarchal conditions under worsening environmental circumstances. People who cannot afford to protect themselves from climatic catastrophes. When they are forced to flee their homes from environmental destruction, the Geneva Refugee Convention does not recognize them as refugees[6] and they are pushed back at the Fortress Europe. In brief: the most affected people are those most oppressed by the patriarchy and/or the racist imperialist system.
However, most of the future-oriented solutions for the climate crisis are put forward by exactly those groups. We stand in solidarity with the international grass roots initiative Debt for Climate from groups of the Global South which pushes for debt cancellation. Through this, countries of the Global South could end the exploitative situation which destroys the climate. A global debt cancellation means that the Global North pays its climate debts and makes sure that postcolonial countries can afford to leave fossil fuels in the ground as well as a just energy transition. We stand side-by-side with all employees who resist their exploitation and environmental exploitation by means of political strike. Only the conversion of the industries will enable a just and sustainable production. The mobility transition, energy transition and agrarian transition can only be reached by ending the power of those who have an interest in destroying our base for life. We are at the side of the international climate movement – no matter whether indigenous communities, local farmers, employees of businesses or climate activists in cities. It is time for a grassroots climate transition which does justice to the population’s needs and not the corporation owners’ greed for profits. For a world in which many worlds are possible.
[1] https://www.kas.de/documents/252038/7995358/Die+Klimaperformance+der+G7-Staaten+und+die+Corona-Krise.pdf/0959a64b-a062-e087-2f47-5290a551cffa?version=1.1&t=1591948707552 (in German)
Cumulative CO2 emssions (without trade and colonies): https://ourworldindata.org/contributed-most-global-co2
Colonialism as the origin of the climate crisis: https://taz.de/Kolonialismus-und-Klimakrise/!5638661/ (in German)
Brochure Colonialism and Climate Crisis: https://www.bundjugend.de/projekte/locals-united/kolonialismusundklimakrise/ (in German)
[2] Carmen G. Gonzales. 2012. Environmental Justice and International Environmental Law. ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2011081
[3] https://www.ipcc.ch/2022/04/04/ipcc-ar6-wgiii-pressrelease/
[5] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/26/carbon-offsetting-environmental-collapse-carbon-land-grab
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/the-biggest-problem-with-carbon-offsetting-is-that-it-doesnt-really-work/
https://www.peacefuldumpling.com/climate-colonialism-carbon-offset-net-zero
[6] https://www.uno-fluechtlingshilfe.de/informieren/fluchtursachen/klimawandel (in German)
