The Politics of Climate Justice – The Mediterranean Version

The timing of the article, which deals with the issue of climate justice, is against the backdrop of the worsening climate crisis and the weakening status of the climate on the political agenda and as a central issue in the elections, rather as a matter of identity politics, mainly old-fashioned left/right. The recent elections in Germany can be seen when the head of the winning party, the CDU, stated during the campaign that Germany’s climate policy is stifling growth and the right-wing AFD party presented it as an “ecological dictatorship.” No less.

The German Green Party, which has largely worked to position Germany at the forefront of the climate fight for years, has been greatly weakened in the last round of elections. That is, other issues of national interest were on the agenda, for voters who are worried about the economic crisis, rising energy prices and the absorption of migrants, issues that are ostensibly unrelated to the climate crisis, but are in many ways they are a cause and a consequence, and vice versa of climate change. In practice, the deterioration of the climate situation in the political arena in Germany is of interest mainly because Germany was at the forefront of the global struggle and succeeded in reducing GHG emissions by about half (from their 1990 value) and in the transition to green energies by over 50%.

But Germany, like other established and powerful countries, has experienced unusual extreme climate events in recent years, such as the severe floods in the summer of 2021, and considering extensive research activity in the field that shows the need to keep the climate issue central to the political agenda, because the crisis is here to stay.

In the opinion of the authors of the article, Co-heads of the Tahadhari Center for Policy Research on Environment, Climate and Society in the Euro-Med region, the above political processes, together with disturbing research findings about climate risks in Mediterranean countries, already taking place, require a rethinking and reassessment of the concept of ‘climate justice’, both as a concept and as an approach to applied policy in Mediterranean countries.

This move could serve as a broad basis for the voice of the diverse civil society in Mediterranean countries, and preparations for the World Climate Conference to be held at the end of the year on the other side of the world, in Brazil (COP30).

One of the important studies published recently (February 2025) is by the German research group that publishes the Climate Risk Index. In the latest report, it was found that among the 5 countries with the highest climate risk out of 171 countries worldwide included in 2025 report, 3 are countries in the northern Mediterranean, members of the European Union, that is, in the context of the current discussion, these are countries that cannot be defined as weak from a socio-economic perspective, or that are not subject to a binding framework of long-term climate preparedness.

A. Post-Copenhagen Climate Justice (COP15-COP29):

The climate justice approach as an outline framework with implementable implications for climate and energy economics policies began to take hold after the UN Climate Conference held in Copenhagen (2008), and against the backdrop of the difficulties of the transition from the Kyoto Agreement to the Paris Agreement, which was signed 7 years later, in the opinion of many due to the failure to contain the component of climate inequality at the global level, between the southern and northern hemispheres. This tendency which was then identified by a limited number of research groups in the world that focused on climate inequality research, addressed the need to refer to GHG emission data not only by productive/polluting sectors, such as the fertilizer, fossil fuel, and/or transportation industries, but also by socio-economic data of population groups.

Research by the Association for Environmental Justice in Israel (AEJI), headed by Prof. Danny Rabinowitz and Carmit Lubanov, was among the first think tanks in the world, to develop the methodology for assessing the socioeconomic profile of GHG emissions based on consumption data for socioeconomic deciles and formulated the Carbon Inequality Index. The index showed that GHG emissions not only reflect climate inequality, but are a multiplier of income inequality, an index that shows income gaps that are already high in Israel by international comparison.

The findings of the work were presented at the first meeting of the committee in the Knesset ‘Post Copenhagen’ in early 2009, with the aim of examining fiscal and legislative tools to encourage the green transition, and to our view to adopt a social climate economy. Among them is a model that we formulated long before the Israeli government became interested in the issue, according to which a ‘Fair Carbon Tax’, whose revenues will enable support for low-income households for energy efficiency, support for public transportation, and will be a catalyst for a Green Transition.

In the decade and a half that have passed since then, extreme climate events have become more frequent, much more powerful, claiming many human lives alongside damage on a historic scale to infrastructure and property, not only in the southern hemisphere or in countries without proper infrastructure, but also in the established center of Western Europe such as Germany, Belgium, Netherland and France (See picture, Emergency Aid services, flooded street, Summer 2024). Furthermore, climate change has led in many locations to irreversible damage to agricultural areas and pastures in rural Africa and as a result to the forced migration of tribes and villages. But not only in Africa, but also in central Europe, villages have been affected by floods and local population have been forced to relocate their settlements for generations to other places within the country.

Considering these processes, the think tank of the Tahadhari Center for Regional policy designed to formulate social climate policy, not only of a country level, but also of regional blocs and within countries characterized by distinct regions. That is, rich/poor areas like Italy North/South, or socially and geographically peripheral areas in the rural areas of the Euro-Med countries, to establish the climate inequality model 2025, and especially to examine the linkages to climate risk indicators water shortages, droughts, floods, life-threatening heat waves, the number of deaths directly attributed to climate phenomena.

B. Climate Justice 2025

When examining the findings of the latest studies by the Tahadhari Center, the following characteristics can be pointed out as components of the concept of climate justice as a basis for formulating principles for applied policy in the prism of the Euro-Med region:

1. Inadequacy in the relationship between the level of transition to renewable energy sources (green transition) and a high level of personal consumption. A study by the Tahadhari Center shows that despite high transition rates compared between countries to energy from renewable sources, such as the Scandinavian countries, per capita consumption is still very high in those countries, and therefore also relatively high greenhouse gas emissions. In contrast to the southern Mediterranean countries, for example. That is, climate inequality as reflected in consumption patterns according to the representation of households on a socio-economic scale in comparison between countries indicates the need to raise awareness of aspects of the issue of consumption from a socio-economic perspective as significant for climate policy.
2. Climate victimization – an element that must be integrated into the concept of political climate justice. In addition to the conventional meaning of climate victimization, which is perceived against the background of forced migration of locals in disadvantaged places because of a critical climate crisis in a particular place, which forces the population to migrate to another place, usually within the territory of the state.                                        The element that we believe should be included in the concept of climate justice reflects the relationship between the state’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and the degree of its exposure to climate risks. It is worth quoting in this context the words of the head of the Hashemite Kingdom, King Abdullah II, presented at the opening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Dubai, 1^st December 2023 (COP28): “Jordan contributes a slim 0.06 percent to global greenhouse gases, yet, we are greatly impacted by global climate change, which has caused threats to our scarce water resources, food sources, and eco-diversity.”

3. Geopolitical Climate-Refugee Nexus Principle –  most importantly, the severity of living conditions and environmental quality of life in refugee camps in conflict zones – an aspect of great geopolitical importance, and not just humanitarian, of aiding in the short term, as in refugee camps in the Middle East, and against the backdrop of the ongoing war crisis in Gaza.

Tahadhari Center’s position is that an examination of the impact of climate on the lives of the population in refugee camps, against the backdrop of conflict and war, who are staying in refugee camps because of ongoing fighting, but whose living conditions and physical environment are being further damaged by the climate crisis, therefore, the political recognition of climate vulnerability will facilitate to find a political solution, as part of a climate strategy for neighboring countries. (‘Climate victims’ – Is it a matter of terminology, or a can be a key to facilitate regional climate governance and conflict resolution? C. Lubanov and M. Causon, 2022).

To summarize, the meaning of data at the national level for the perception of climate justice – given that economically strong countries, such as those in the northern Mediterranean, and although they are leveling high regarding governance in the field of climate policy a, they are ranking  high in the index of exposure to climate risks per country, indicates in our opinion the need to examine the issue of climate risks at a sub-national resolution, that is, of regions with distinct socio-economic characteristics.

Our assessment is that the high mortality data are highly likely to characterize regions that are socio-economically disadvantaged and lack of climate-oriented governance. At this stage, the continuation of the policy research by Tahadhari Center is aimed to examine the sub-regions that are most affected by climate change within a country, and will include data collection and analysis through a socio-economic prism, with an emphasis on identifying and labeling areas with potential vulnerability, and socio-economically disadvantaged areas.

Creating databases that will enable access to tools tailored to the population regarding climate risks, to create better climate security and resilience. For example: Previous studies indicate that in extreme climate events, such as prolonged heat waves, “it is not the strong that survives” but “the social survives better” (AEJI, 2015).

That is, in communities where there is a prior organization of the community and its leaders together with the local authority who are responsible for contacting the residents of the settlement/neighborhood during an unusual climatic event, for example during an extreme climatic event, it will be to provide needs for people who have difficulty with mobility, or to evacuate people in an organized manner during floods, forest fires. Not only for the sake of information, but also for solutions in the short and long term. Research attention should be given to poor neighborhoods, neighborhoods populated by immigrants, refugees, and minorities, with the aim of creating tools, raising awareness of the issue of global warming, Implementing, in order to the political concept of climate justice will create better preparedness at the national level.

Additional information that will be gathered will enable a joint call by representatives of the Mediterranean countries to focus on the goal of reducing gaps, not only in mitigation of exposure to climate risks but also in the preparedness of the country, and in regions within a country for long term climate resilience.