Climate, Kassel, and the Social Question: Climate Justice and Political Responsibility in the Global South and North

Climate change is dramatically altering our environment. Heat, drought, and extreme flooding are destroying the living conditions of people, animals, and plants worldwide. It is making access to essential resources—water, air, health, food, energy, and mobility—scarcer and more expensive. Climate change is making people—and our planet—sick. 

These far-reaching changes are not distributed evenly across the globe and affect people in very different ways. The Global South has contributed the least to climate change, yet people there suffer the most from its effects, while having hardly any resources for climate protection and adaptation. 

This phenomenon can be observed worldwide. People with low incomes—who consequently have a low carbon footprint—will be most severely affected by the consequences of climate change. This is true in Germany as well. So what does climate justice mean for these people, whether in the Global South or the Global North—for example, in the city of Kassel?

What responsibility do politics, business, and society bear for the social dimensions of climate change? How can the costs of climate impacts be distributed equitably between the rich and the poor? What can the city of Kassel do—through its organizations and associations, its business community, and its educational institutions—to ensure a fair and equitable response to the consequences of climate change?  

Event:

1. Welcome

Organizer:

University of Kassel, Department of International and Intersocietal Relations 

Ecumenical Center of the EKHN and EKKW

Oikocredit, Förderkreis Hessen-Pfalz e.V.

2. Moderation and Introduction

Christina Schnepel, Director of the Ecumenical Center of the EKHN and EKKW

3. Climate Impacts, Climate Adaptation, and Climate Justice. 

The Socio-Ecological Transformation and the Social Question

Ana Bonet, Kassel Institute for Sustainability

The Social Question in the Anthropocene. 

Planetary Boundaries and Climate Justice from the Perspective of the Global South

The ecological crisis is changing the conditions under which social justice can be achieved today. Against the backdrop of planetary boundaries, this paper examines the connections between the ecological footprint, global inequalities, and climate justice

Jessica Bodman, Oikocredit Germany

Climate Adaptation and Its Financing

Advocacy and the role of renewable energy and agricultural adaptation in the Global South. This article describes the current situation, explores possibilities, and provides examples of responsible investments to promote greater climate justice in the Global South.

4. Climate Justice on the Ground 

Politics, the Economy, and Social Issues

Panel Discussion 

Timo Eckardt, Executive Director of the Climate Protection Council of the City of Kassel

Tamara Morgenroth, Executive Director of the Diakonisches Werk Kassel Region

Arvid Jasper, Climate Justice Kassel

What are the consequences of the climate crisis in the Global North? 

What does climate justice specifically mean in the Global North? 

How are people here also suffering from climate change?

How should policymakers support, mitigate, and finance the socio-ecological transformation and its consequences for urban society?

Questions from the audience

Following the event: Wrap-up in the lobby of uni:lokal