The Business of Climate Justice

Climate change and inequality are two of the biggest social challenges of our time. And while climate change is affecting us all, its severest impacts fall on the world’s most vulnerable people. Inequities due to factors such as gender, race, and geography exacerbate the risks to people’s lives and livelihoods. They also diminish people’s opportunity and capacity to participate in transitioning to a low-carbon, resource-efficient, and socially inclusive green economy.

In this way, both climate change and inequality ultimately drive greater poverty, and successfully addressing them requires confronting them in tandem. In recent years, the idea of climate justice—finding ways to solve issues related to climate change while addressing inequities—has become central to climate change conversations in low-income nations, among young people, and among marginalized groups, including Indigenous peoples, people of color, women and girls, LGBTQ people, and persons with disabilities. It’s also increasingly at the core of international discussions on climate change, including official recognition of its importance in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

All sectors have a role to play in achieving climate justice, but it’s fair to say that, compared to government and civil society, business is late in addressing climate change and systemic social injustice, and is in fact frequently called out as contributing to both problems. In addition, businesses that have begun to act have traditionally treated them as separate issues. However, amid various effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, pressure from investors and consumers, increasing political action on climate change, and greater awareness of the risks associated with inaction, more companies are beginning to take up both challenges at the same time, and to move climate justice up the corporate agenda.

This article series, produced in partnership with the social impact community Business Fights Poverty, explores why climate justice is a critical concern for businesses, how companies can start to put climate justice principles into practice, and emerging solutions from different industries that are beginning to take action.