Covering the issue of climate change is not always talking about what we as humans can do to save the planet. For many people in the Global South, it is about climate injustice – how the marginalized become the most affected people by climate crisis, yet they contribute to so much less emission compared to the people in the North / Western countries. Adding the concept of Anthropocene to that shows a larger problem of inequality. Applying postcolonialism perspective towards environmental issue means questioning the idea that the knowledge that Western countries produced are the absolute truth. This thesis builds on case studies of organizations in Jakarta and Bali and their grassroot approach, from experience and challenges to be in their line of work, to listen to the voice of the practitioners as it shapes the field of communication for development and social change. Postcolonial critique concepts from McEwan (2018) are used to analyze the practices of environmental communication towards their target and the public, but also to highlight structural and external challenges that they may face in doing their work. Result of the interviews identified the notions of 1) Indonesian postcolonial identity, 2) Neoliberalism tendency, 3) Power relations, 4) Knowledge produced in the ‘West’, and 5) Non-inclusive development practices / Representation issue. This thesis highlights several identified challenges, from how certain local and cultural practices are sometimes overlooked within sustainable development practices, how foreign concepts and the use of English poses problems within the communication process, international project-based development approach presented problems for the local environmental organization, and how the slogan ‘Think Globally, Act Locally’ that are popular within environmental discourses should be rethought to shift the paradigm that global environmental issues are not as global as certain people might think.

This study examines the cultural practices of the Sámi people and how they are affected by climate (in)justice within the European Union (EU). The establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has led many global actors such as the EU to commit and implement sustainable mitigation strategies. This paper explores if the EU in pursuit of sustainable development has neglected human rights issues through its mitigation strategies. This is important to understand in order to safeguard indigenous communities´ rights within the EU in light of the climate crisis and to avoid climate injustices in the form of racism, discrimination, and exclusion. This study makes use of three theoretical frameworks: green colonialism, environmental and climate justice, and textual analysis as a method to analyse gathered material. This paper argues that the Sámi and their cultural practices are neglected within decision-making processes and sustainable mitigation strategies, threatening Sámi livelihood security and their cultural identity. The analysis as part of a larger issue highlights tensions within sustainable development pursuits on a global level.

Just and equitable responses to the disparate impacts of climate change on communities and individuals throughout the world are at the heart of the concept of climate justice. Commodification, in the context of my research, is the process of monetizing nature and livelihoods for the purpose of surplus accumulation and profit maximization. In this study, my aim was to contextualize the concepts of climate injustice, disaster capitalism, and the commodification of lives and livelihoods in the specific setting of disaster vulnerability in southwest coastal Bangladesh. By conducting a case study in Kamarkhola and Sutarkhali regions of southwest coastal Bangladesh, I utilized discourse analysis and content analysis of livelihood interviews, semi-structured interviews, and policy documents to demonstrate the conceptual interrelation among global climate change, climate injustice, disaster capitalism, and capitalist expansion in environmentally precarious areas. I argue that in Southwest Coastal Bangladesh, the vulnerability to disasters stems from a complex and multifaceted layer of social hierarchies and inequalities, entwined with factors such as class and power relations. I also argue that Inequalities in the political, economic, and social realms have a key role in imposing vulnerability on disadvantaged people living in ecologically vulnerable areas. The perpetuation of inequality is sustained by the expansion and accumulation of capital through the dispossession and exploitation of natural resources. The existing approaches to climate change adaptation in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh are deeply entrenched in neoliberal capitalism. The introduction of neoliberal economic policies, such as the privatization of state lands and the promotion of export-oriented aquaculture, created favorable conditions for capitalist expansion in environmentally vulnerable places through "accumulation by dispossession."

[pt] Em 2021, o Dia da Sobrecarga da Terra ocorreu em 29 de julho e, desde então, a população passou a estar em débito com o planeta, já que aquilo que é consumido, não corresponde ao que ele é capaz de produzir no período de 12 meses. Trata-se de uma relação desarmônica que corrobora com o estado de emergência climática atual, onde a busca por recursos naturais mostra-se cada vez mais predatória. Neste estudo observamos, a partir de revisão bibliográfica, que alguns grupos sociais suportam os efeitos da emergência do clima de maneira desigual, e nos propusemos a observar o tema a partir da ótica da justiça climática. Foi o Acordo de Paris o responsável por introduzir, em 2015, este conceito nas discussões sobre o meio ambiente e o clima, ainda que sem determinar seu significado. O presente trabalho discute esses aspectos a partir da visão do Sul-Global e lê o Decrescimento como possível opositor ao Antropoceno. Concluímos que uma construção epistemológica unificada do termo justiça climática pode não ser tão factível quanto uma perspectiva que abrange múltiplas possibilidades. / [en] In 2021, Earth Overshoot Day took place on July 29 and, since then, the population has been in debt to the planet, as what is consumed does not correspond to what it is capable of producing in the period of 12 months. It is a disharmonious relationship that corroborates the current state of climate emergency, where the search for natural resources is increasingly predatory. In this study, we observed, based on a literature review, that some social groups bear the effects of the climate emergency in an unequal way, and we proposed to observe this from the perspective of climate justice. The Paris Agreement was responsible for introducing this concept in discussions on the environment and climate in 2015, although without determining its meaning. The present work discusses these aspects from the perspective of the Global South and reads Degrowth as a possible opposition to the Anthropocene. We conclude that a unified epistemological construction of the term climate justice may not be as feasible as a perspective that encompasses multiple possibilities.