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Expert Climate Justice Workshop Paves Way for Ethical Foundation to a Global Climate Deal
The Global Humanitarian Forum convened today a group of 20 experts in the fields of ethics, human rights, climate change, and poverty to begin the formulation of a set of universal climate justice principles.The group included, inter alia, representatives of Oxfam GB, Columbia University (New York), the Swiss Federal Polytechnic (Zürich), The Stockhom Environment Institue, the Bahá’í International Community, The Graduate Institue of International and Development Studies (Geneva), the Lutheran World Federation, the Ethos Foundation, the International Council on Human Rights Policy, Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative, the World Council of Churches, Earth Justice, Globethics.net and the Maldives Mission to Geneva.
The climate justice principles are being prepared for a high-level consultation to be held in 2009 in Pretoria, South Africa. The document is intended to serve as a foundation for the Forum's Global Alliance for Climate Justice "and ultimately for creating a wider movement for climate justice worldwide," commented Forum CEO Walter Fust. Amid growing calls for “Climate Justice” from a diverse range of actors around the world today, Fust said "the world's poorest groups are not responsible for climate change yet suffer the brunt of its impacts. Any serious future global climate deal must have its foundations in sound principles of climate justice."
The workshop was moderated by Professor Christoph Stückelberger, Executive Director of Globethics.net, a global network for applied ethics.