Four principles for climate justice

1 RICH TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

The burden of adjustment to the climate crisis must be borne by those who created it. This means:

• A 90 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized countries by 2050.
• An end to over-production for over-consumption, and a dramatic reduction in wasteful consumption by Northern and Southern élites.
• Financial support from the North to the South to help with the cost of adjusting to the effects of climate change and continuing to develop along sustainable lines. This transfer of wealth should be based on the principle that the rich world owes the poor world an 'ecological debt', and it must be subject to democratic control.

2 LEAVE FOSSIL FUELS IN THE GROUND

Climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels. We need to stop it at source. Leave the coal in the hole, the oil in the soil. Invest instead in energy efficiency and a massive expansion of community-controlled renewable energy.

3 FAIR AND EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS

Climate solutions should actually work, and not create further problems. This means:

• Ending the aggressive promotion of false solutions such as carbon trading, agro-fuels and geo-engineering. These allow the rich to avoid their responsibility to make major changes; help corporations to increase their profits; and have negative knock-on effects on the world's poor and the planet's ecosystem. And they don't prevent further climate change.
• Planning and executing a just transition to a low-carbon society that protects people’s rights, jobs and well-being.

4 EQUAL ACCESS TO RESOURCES

Natural resources must be conserved for the common good, not privatized and unsustainably exploited. People’s sovereignty over land, energy, forests and water must be upheld and reclaimed.