(Mis)Recognition, (De)Coloniality and Climate Justice: Implications for Marginalized and Indigenous Youth Climate Activism

The world is experiencing unprecedented global heating with negative impacts on mental health, physical health, ecosystems, infrastructure and economic systems. This presentation focuses on strengthening the role of the decolonial movement and its intersections with climate justice particularly in the global South. I draw on work on marginalized including indigenous youth activism as examples. Young people are increasingly active in climate activism. However, youth from marginalized and indigenous groups have reported feelings of exclusion and misrepresentation in white and Western dominated youth climate activist spaces. Colonization, coloniality and decolonization are often drawn on in climate justice scholarship and praxis. What do we mean by these concepts and how can they strengthen climate justice? Using a narrative review of recent writings on climate and environmental justice, I attempt to make three arguments. I argue that it is important to identify the misrecognition of structural, epistemic and subjective dimensions of climate injustices. While conventional notions of justice (for example, distributive and procedural) take us so far, understanding (mis)recognition can strengthen our understanding of climate injustices, particularly in the global South. Second, it is particularly important to reveal the misrecognition of coloniality, particularly those colonial assemblages that underpin climate injustices. I demonstrate how climate coloniality is co-constituted at the structural, discursive and psychological levels. Lastly, it is important to describe examples of decolonial work from the global South that attempt to address climate coloniality and strengthen climate justice. I use examples from marginalized and indigenous youth climate activism in the global South to demonstrate decolonial work. Lastly, I discuss recommendations for future research, youth activism and praxis.