In recent years there has been a shift in the debate about climate change. There is now no question that human induced climate change is happening, the debate now centres on how much and how fast the world's climatic patterns will change.

Friends of the Earth believes in equitable and sustainable use of resources across a fair share of what we call “environmental space”. Environmental space encompasses energy, non-renewable resources, agricultural land and forests. By extension, a "fair share" of environmental space can be defined as the amount of these resources that each person can use without causing irreversible damage to the Earth. This principle, along with striving for environmental equity (equitable access to the Earth's resources by all nations and all peoples), drives Friends of the Earth’s position on climate change.

Environmental justice amounts to a fair share of environmental space for all peoples. This includes awareness of cultural diversity and autonomy of nations and peoples, as well as recognition of the historical over-consumption and exploitation of the world’s natural and social resources by the enriched countries and peoples of the world (majority of which are in the global North).

The terms ‘enriched’ and ‘impoverished’ derive from the need to move away from market or economic indicators of wealth as an acknowledgement of the immense social and ecological richness of the global South, which has been exploited by the global North. In turn the global North are identified as ‘enriched’ as their financial wealth has been gained by the systematic exploitation of resources in the global South through imperialism and colonialism.

The term ‘enriched’ also allows acknowledgement of the elite minorities within Southern communities whom have also gained significant economic wealth by facilitating the plunder of resources. The term impoverished also recognises the exploitation of indigenous peoples (the ‘fourth world’) and other social minorities in the North.

Use of the term ‘equity’ in discussing environmental and climate justice requires us to acknowledge the socio-political history of resource consumption across the globe. Use of the term ‘equity’ in environmental and climate justice asserts the principle of equal rights and responsibility while also recognising the unfair privilege of the global North.

Equity requires the global North to acknowledge that the privilege of the global North is a direct result of the exploitation of the global South via colonialism and imperialism which has resulted in an ecological debt.

Equity needs to be at the core of any discussion about climate change and solutions need to be understood as being essentially political, not technological.

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