ABSTRACT
The global policy process is moving too slowly in relation to the scale of the problem. This chapter examines what social movements are emerging as a force for action on climate change, to reinforce the efforts of sympathetic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and diplomats. In the North, civil society has concentrated on climate change more exclusively as an environmental issue, by environmental NGOs and researchers and has focused on scientific and technical solutions such as emissions controls and carbon credits. The climate justice message is that poor people have not been "waiting for the science" on global warming. Articulated in the language of rights, their foremost concern about climate change is with who is responsible for this enormous new threat to their survival. By and large, the framing of "climate justice" reflects the same social and economic rights perspectives voiced by global movements on debt, trade and globalization.
