from divestment to climate justice: perspectives from university fossil fuel divestment campaigns
abstract
the fossil fuel divestment (ffd) movement has helped facilitate a global transition away from
fossil fuels by stigmatizing the sector’s public image. the movement has been claimed to be
rooted in climate justice, a framework that addresses the history of land domination, neoliberal
capitalism, and the unequal distribution of environmental burdens. the literature on ffd
indicates that in addition to keeping carbon reserves in the ground, ffd campaigns have
provided space for settler 世界杯2022赛程表淘汰赛
to learn about the ongoing colonialism of indigenous land and
have given them the opportunity to create alliances with frontline communities. despite these
accomplishments, ffd campaigns can reproduce the inequities of the dominant racist and
colonial systems and reinforce the very market-based approaches that climate justice activists
have rejected. furthermore, campaigns lack diverse memberships and thus divestment can be
perceived as a tactic of the privileged which can contribute to misunderstandings of what
“counts” as climate justice work. using movement-relevant theory and a climate justice
principles framework informed by scholarly and movement literature in the fields of planetary
health, environmental justice and climate justice, i articulate three principles—values,
participation and recognition—to explore how university-based ffd campaigns have
operationalized climate justice in their strategies and practices. i employed a multiple case study
of three ffd campaigns across canada and collected and analyzed data from public campaign
documents and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with core organizers from each campaign.
through the cj principles framework, i used a priori coding schema to deduct codes based on
the three principles. the findings of this research identified that climate justice principles were
operationalized through 1) climate justice messaging through divestment arguments and popular
education; 2) equitable movement-building practices through community-building, accessibility
and care and; 3) frontline and movement solidarity through collaboration, relationship-building
and community reinvestment. this study also identified the barriers and contradictions present in
the integration of cj. the key implications of this research can provide opportunities for further
application of cj. these include monitoring the reinvestment of divested funds to ensure that
harm is not further perpetuated by investment in other exploitative sectors, to incorporate
intentional recruitment strategies and formalized processes for decision-making to recruit and
retain diverse organizers, and to prioritize the creation and maintenance of long-term
relationships in their solidarity efforts.