Disruption, Decarbonisation, Reparations (Day 2)

This event brings together activists, civil society leaders, and academics working towards the common goal of climate justice, broadly construed. Over two days of discussion, we hope to touch on many of the diverse issues that form part of the climate justice conversation. See below for our programme of activities.

Programme Details

Thursday, 3 September 2020

Gender, race, and place

9:30 – 11 am BST (Thursday 3 September)

The climate crisis urges us to think beyond hegemonic conceptions of private property. This panel contextualises and re-imagines human relationships with land and space, paying close attention to the ways in which dominant legal and economic conceptions of land have been used to dispossess, disempower, and displace.

Link: Join live event (MS Teams)

Chair: Tara Mulqueen (University of Warwick)

Speakers:

• Sarah Keenan (Birkbeck University): Making Land Liquid: The Politics of Title Registration
• Smith Ouma (Cardiff University): (Re)inventing Dispossession? The Logics of Restitution under Kenya’s National Land Commission
• Eleanor Salter (Writer and climate activist): The Right to Roam: challenging public exclusion from the land
• Martha Gayoye (University of Warwick): Reconceptualisation of Gendered Colonial Property Relations in Africa: From Ownership to Ubuntu
• Sahar Shah (University of Warwick): Indigenous Women in the Making of the Canadian Home and State
• Tianna Johnson (Black Girls Camping Trip): Eco-Womanism and How a Camping Trip Can Be Imperative
• Lizzy Willmington (Cardiff University): Everyday Resistances: Walking and Talking the Hostile Environment

Collective liberation: Black Lives Matter, queer justice, and intersectionality

11:30 am – 1 pm BST (Thursday 3 September)

Climate and environmental injustice impacts are felt globally, but our ability to cope depends on factors beyond our control: what is in our purse, our gender and gender identity, sexuality, age, geography, indigenous or minority status, whether we live with disabilities, our national or social origin, and the lottery of our birthplace. Discriminatory state and corporate policies disproportionately expose specific communities to preventable risks. What does a holistic approach to repairing these separate but related injustices look like? How do we organise for climate justice and collective liberation across economic, social, cultural and political struggles?

Link: Join live event (MS Teams)

Chair: Harpreet Kaur Paul (University of Warwick)

Speakers:

• Alex Wanjiku Kelbert (University of Warwick and BLM UK): The movement for Black Lives is for – and demands – local and global climate justice
• Aoife Stephens (Divest Pride, People & Planet): Queer liberation and climate justice
• Kennedy Walker & Sakina Sheikh (London Leap, Platform): COVID-19 recovery, climate justice and transitioning away from historical roots in extraction and exploitation towards equity and justice
• Zahra Dalilah (Black feminist writer and activist): Diasporic resistance in the seat of empire and its interconnection and interdependence with Majority Global South liberation
• Josina Calliste (Land in Our Names): Reflections on LION’s work in disrupting oppressive land dynamics relating to BPOC communities in Britain

Direct action, divestment, occupation, and resistance

2 – 3:30 pm (Thursday 3 September)

The environmental and climate crises have elicited global activism at an incredible scale. This panel considers the diverse ways in which people around the world are disrupting the orders that facilitated the climate crisis and perpetuate climate and environmental injustice.

Link: Join live event (MS Teams)

Chair: TBC

Speakers:

• Frédéric Mégret (McGill University) and Amar Khoday (University of Manitoba): Climate Disobedience
• Laura Clayson (Divest-Invest, NUS & People & Planet): Fossil fuel divestment campaigns & student activism on climate justice
• Suzanne Dhaliwal (No Tar Sands): Staying with the struggle: radical solidarity and hope
• Rob Abrahms (Medact): Climate and health organising for justice
• Ceara Webster (University of Warwick): Mni Wiconi: obstacles and opportunities for joint indigeneous-settler activism in and beyond Standing Rock
• Dominique Palmer (UK Student Climate Network): UKSCN’s Youth-led activism & pathways forward

Strategising pathways forward: COP26 and beyond when organising for climate justice

4 – 6 pm BST (Thursday 3 September)

The UN’s annual climate conference (COP26) was due to come to Glasgow this November 2020. Although it has been rescheduled for 2021, the moment carries significance. Vessels from Glasgow were used to transport slaves and bring back extracted wealth. Trade and investment regimes continue to excavate resources and displace. Climate change and environmental impacts sit on top of these injustices, being felt disproportionately by those who did the least to contribute to our crises. How can we leverage this moment to heighten creative, theoretical, and strategic approaches to understanding and organising for climate justice? Thoughts on post-conference output as well as future collaborations will be invited from attendees.

Link: Join live event (MS Teams)

Co-facilitated by conference lead organisers: Sahar Shah & Harpreet Kaur Paul

Speakers:

• Leon Sealey-Huggins (University of Warwick): Building from here to there
• Nathan Thanki (Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice): Strategies for mobilising – conferences for global justice demands and beyond
• Chris Saltmarsh (Labour for a Green New Deal): Labour members and the global push for global climate justice
• Dorothy Guerrero (Global Justice Now): Amplifying global justice demands: strategies moving forward