Environmental justice, economic justice, racial justice and gender justice are indivisible parts of a global struggle to readdress existing power structures. Active movements must ensure that these matters are embedded in the agenda of the transition away from the fossil fuel economy by addressing the root causes of capitalism and colonialism.

Not only are we facing loss and destruction at a rate that we have never witnessed before, but the violence to communities protecting the last intact biodiversity on the planet has also never been as intense. The climate crisis calls for unprecedented creativity to respond to the scale of the disaster. We must find ways to build interdisciplinary, intersectional, and international responses to the crises.

‘As the climate crisis comes into ever sharper focus the question of how we pay for a just transition takes on an ever-greater urgency. Plenty of voices tell us that the costs are just too high, especially in the era of Coronavirus – or, more soothingly, that the market will provide. But we cannot afford despair or complacency. It is now time to plan, and to act.’

Suzanne Dhaliwal (b.1984, Birmingham) is a climate justice creative, campaigner, researcher, lecturer in environmental justice and trainer in creative strategies for decolonisation. In 2009, she co-founded the UK Tar Sands Network, which challenged BP and Shell investments in the Canadian tar sands in solidarity with frontline indigenous communities, spurring the internationalisation of the fossil fuel divestment movement. Dhaliwal has led campaigns and artistic interventions to challenge fossil fuel investments in the Arctic region and Nigeria that violate the rights of Indigenous peoples, and of those seeking justice in the wake of BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster. She holds a postgraduate degree in Social Sculpture from Oxford University, and is currently engaged in creative strategies to address the lack of representation and ongoing white supremacy in the climate justice movement.

www.suzannedhaliwal.org