The Global South, home for over half of the pollution of the world faces devastated climate impacts like flood, drought, and hurricanes, despite contributing far less in greenhouse gases GHGs emission (these gases traps in earth’s atmosphere which warms the planet, major gases include carbon dioxide CO2, methane CH4, and nitrous oxide N2O) yet it is the most vulnerable to it.
This glaring inequality lies at the core of “Climate Justice”, where marginalized, low-income countries and communities have unequal burden of climate change. This imbalance raises the question about fairness, accountability, and responsibility.
Climate Justice
To understand the concept of “Climate Justice” first we must thoroughly understand the concept of “Climate Injustice”, which discuss two broad human groups. The first is the one who have benefitted from GHGs emission and colonialism supported economic development and now are possessing the privileges. The second group is the one with a diverse and larger population approximately 6 billion people, which made 85% of the world’s total population, sacrificed and exploited in the development process (Terry, 2009). According to the (University of Colorado Boulder, n.d.) “Those who are most affected and have the fewest resources to adapt to climate change are also the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions”. Its goal is to expose and challenge unfair conditions and harms.
Climate justice is a movement which strives to address the root causes of climate related issues and broadly works with racial, socio-economic, and environmental justice. Climate justice places equity and human rights at the center of climate change decision making. It is a subset of environmental justice, which ask for fair treatment regardless of background in environmental law. It recognized the unequal historical accountability of wealthier countries, industries, and individuals, usually the global north and rich corporations which are responsible for the climate crisis. Climate justice demands for accountability and actions from wealthy countries and corporations to help the vulnerable countries and communities who bear little to less contribution in carbon emission.
“What we are seeing now is only the very beginning of a changing climate caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases. We are not equally to blame for these emissions, nor for the damage they cause.”—Greta Thunberg
Global South and Vulnerability
The division of the global north and the global south signifies the differences between more industrialized developed countries and the least developed or developing countries which is the long-lasted feature of debate in global environmental politics. Generally, the global north includes highly developed countries such as the USA, Canada, Western European countries, developed parts of Asia, Australia and New Zealand. On the contrary, the global south is integrated with regions like Africa, developing Asian countries including the Middle East, and Latin America. Since 2022, a 1.9% increase in GHGs emissions has been recorded. The six largest emitters include China (30.1%), USA (11.3%), India (7.8%), EU27 (6.1%), Russia (5.0%), and Brazil (2.5%), collectively accountable for 62.7% of global emissions (Research, EDGAR – The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric, 2024).
Developing countries of the global south suffer the most primarily because of historical emissions by the north, economic vulnerability, lack of resources, incompetent government, resources exploitation, and inability to adapt and respond to climate change. Generating electricity and burning of fossil fuels by the north, contributes to the larger chunk of GHGs. Manufacturers and industries, such as construction industries, burn fossil fuels to produce energy for the production of iron, steel, cement, electronics, and plastic, releasing powerful GHGs that trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere. This results in a rise in temperature, leading to glacier melting, which in turn causes sea level rise, floods, and unusual weather patterns (United Nations, n.d.).
Deforestation further worsens the problem by reducing nature’s ability to absorb CO2, since trees are the largest absorbers of CO2. Modern agricultural practices, other land use changes, along with deforestation are responsible for almost quarter of GHGs emission (United Nations, n.d.). The weak infrastructure and widespread poverty make south more vulnerable. Estimated research, predicted that 135 million people will be in poverty due to ecological crisis by 2023 (Hadžić, 2024). The global south’s tropical location and dense population living in low lying coastal areas making them susceptible to severe climate impacts and sea level rise. Although developed countries are also facing the impact of climate change but less severe than global south, because of their resources, infrastructure, wealth, and investment in adaptation to protect themselves from severe weather events.
In an article written by Saleemul Haq and Mohamed Adow presented by Al-Jazeera, in 2022, the India and Pakistan faced the most extreme heat wave ever recorded, destroyed the wheat crops and made people vulnerable to health diseases and even death. Their native countries Kenya and Bangladesh also faced severe consequences. In Northern Kenya, persistent drought put millions of people at the risk of starvation, and in Bangladesh, torrential rain left Bangladesh under the water, making people lose their homes and families (Haq & Adow , 2022). The most vulnerable and least prepared countries are mainly the West African countries, other countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh are also vulnerable to the climate crisis. The recent flood in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan is the most severe and deadliest flood ever recorded. The flash flood killed more than thousands of people and many are missing, destroyed thousands of houses, and infrastructure of billions of rupees has been lost (Baloch, 2025).
Centuries of colonialism, industrialization, exploitation by the global north, and the ongoing economic dependency has caused the developing countries to be inadequate to the resilience. Since 1988, 100 countries have been tracked down for 70 per cent of the global, which are mainly based in developed north (Right Livelihood , 2024). The global south and developing countries are asking for justice, the “Climate Justice”. The global north should take the responsibility and provide assistance in technology and in mitigation of climate adversaries, they should reduce the carbon emissions and move towards renewable energy sources. But the global north argues that the global south should take equal responsibility and reduce the carbon emission then the global north will do so (Uddin, 2017).
Call for Justice
The question about who should pay has an easy answer, the wealthy rich north, who make up 10% of the world and are responsible for more than 60% of carbon emission. They should take the step along with the developing global south countries like China and India by reducing the net emission of carbon and funding the poor developing country by providing them grants not loans which can increase debt crisis. The carbon emission of rich corporation and countries come from their luxuries which aren’t necessities, their millions of dollars mansion which have been built on the deforested land, their frequent air travel, private jets, which needs to be cut down. Their billions of dollars of investment can easily be shifted from fossil fuels to green energy. They not only have the ability to pay but they are responsible as well of the historic carbon emission and neocolonial actions. Carbon emitters have put the life of earth at risk yet they fail to pay for climate debt and even the already committed climate finance. Conference of Paris COP15 in 2009, developed countries committed to provide climate finance to developing countries of 100 billion US dollars a year by 2030. They failed to keep the promise, only 83.3 billion US4 has been reached in 2020 (Oxfam Policy & Practice, 2024). The racial justice and socioeconomic justice should also be provided by the global north not just to the developing countries but to the marginalized, low income, and community of race within the developed countries as well.
Climate justice calls for a shared responsibility grounded in fairness and unity. Through collaborative and equitable actions, the suffering can be reduced and the resilience can be built for most affected, poor, and vulnerable countries. Addressing and recognizing these imbalances will not only protect the countries but also the earth.
Conclusion
No part of the world is immune to climate change and its impacts. The need for urgent action and accountability is crucial not only for developed countries but also for the developing countries. Industrialization has helped the economies of the north to grow at the expense of the environment. If the north continues emitting carbon, deforestation, and land use changes, in future we will not be able to survive on our home planet Life could possibly become extinct forever. The north must realize and take accountability of its historical emissions, and we, as the south, should keep raising our voices against the injustice. The call for justice is not only for marginalized, poor, low income, developing, and vulnerable countries and communities, it is also a call for the protection of wildlife, marine life, ecosystems, and our planet.
References
Baloch, S. M. (2025, August 25). It happened in seconds’: residents count the cost of deadly floods that have left Pakistan in crisis. Retrieved from The Guardian : https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/aug/25/deadly-floods-pakistan-mingora-flood-waters
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Hadžić, F. (2024). Power of Global North vs. Global South; Environmental and Climate Change Policies of Inclusion, Inequalities, and Fragility. Academia. edu Journals. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/106224264/Power_of_Global_North_vs_Global_South_Environmental_and_Climate_Change_Policies_of_Inclusion_Inequalities_and_Fragility
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Momina Imran Haider a final year social science student majoring in International Relations. Her passion lies in understating global interaction and analyzing critical issues such as environmental sustainability and international cooperation. She is enthusiastic about contributing to impactful research that informs policy making and foster diplomatic solutions to global challenges.