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Climate Justice Policy

Overview

This tool provides guidance on how to mainstream Climate Justice policies in your organisation. This may involve integrating climate justice principles and processes into existing policies and/or developing a climate justice policy that informs the entire organisation.

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Imagine a future where community organisations play a key role in addressing climate change and structural inequality by prioritising both social justice and environmental responsibility from the outset. At present, many organisations fail to recognise the crucial link between environmental issues and social justice and, as a result, perpetuate systemic problems and neglect the people and places most impacted by climate injustices. By integrating climate justice into your organisation’s policies, your organisation can champion equitable and sustainable solutions, advocate in solidarity with historically marginalised communities, and foster a culture of responsibility and awareness. Co-creating a climate justice policy with the community will help to ensure that the whole organisation is prepared for climate change and addresses climate injustices as part of its core business.

Step 1. Assembling and preparing a working group and advisory group

Bring a group of core staff from across the organisation together in a climate justice working group. Read and familiarise yourselves with climate justice issues, principles and practices.

Visit: What is Climate Justice and Why is it Important?

Step 2. Understand climate injustices in local communities

Assemble a Lived Experience and/or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory group or integrate climate justice into existing advisory group agendas. Work with the community and other experts to collectively develop an understanding of how climate change causes and exacerbates injustices in the places and communities your organisation serves. Ensure that the diversity within the community needs to be represented.

Visit: Identifying Climate Injustices in Local Communities

Step 3. Develop organisational climate justice principles and ensure inclusiveness, intersectionality, representation and responsiveness

One sentence here. Be specific about who is involved in this – is this with the working group advisory groups or both?

Visit: Climate Justice Principles

Step 4. Review current policies to integrate climate justice into them.

Use the Climate Justice Audit Tool and Dimensions of Climate Justice reflection tool to assess how the organisation is currently enacting climate justice and where it can improve. Use these tools to identify which existing policies and processes can be infused with climate justice principles and actions.

Visit:

Climate Justice Dimensions

Climate Justice and Resilience Audit Tool

Climate Action Statement – Australian Association of Social Workers

Step 5. Develop and integrate policy and strategies

Using the climate justice principles and the outcomes of the audit and reflective questions, co-design a comprehensive climate justice policy. The working group and advisory groups can participate in co-designing the policy. The policy should be informed by First Nations People and people with Lived Experiences and detail how resources will be redistributed to the community. The policy should outline the organisation’s commitment, objectives, and strategies for addressing climate injustices. Include specific actions that address the needs of people who are most impacted by climate injustice and marginalised in decision-making. Include climate and resilience action, advocacy positions, and sustainable procurement.