ABSTRACT
Climate change is causing increasingly frequent extreme weather events worldwide. These affect Mozambique more than any other country, according to the NGO Germanwatch, which monitors climate-related storms, cyclones, floods, droughts, heat waves, and other extreme weather events. In less than three years (2019–2021), Mozambique was hit by four cyclones and two severe tropical storms. Many segments of the Mozambican population, both urban and rural, have been negatively affected. The very poorest – often women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities – are the most vulnerable and most adversely impacted. Additionally, these groups tend to suffer cumulative and intersectional effects not only from weather-related instability and destruction but also from existing socioeconomic inequities. Despite its acute vulnerability, Mozambique is highly biodiverse, which is seen as helpful for mitigating climate change. About 26% of the national territory is covered by Conservation Areas. But the country has adopted a number of controversial climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, including Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), promoted and financed by the World Bank and other international organizations, even though Mozambique is one of the world’s lowest GHG emitters both currently and historically; and REDD+ schemes have been heavily criticized for their negative impacts on local populations. Which elements of climate justice are most salient in the Mozambican context? What climate justice priorities are most pressing to address these challenges? We offer our analysis in this chapter, focusing on climate justice in its dynamic sense – an evolving concept as global socioeconomic and ecological conditions also evolve. Based on our policy and document analysis, interviews, fieldwork, and case studies in several parts of the country, our research identifies a serious absence or disregard of several principles of climate justice in the conception, planning, and implementation of national climate policies in Mozambique. This highlights the need for stronger participation and meaningful involvement of vulnerable groups in designing climate policies and engaging in climate justice debates. To strengthen participation and agency, there is a need to identify which groups are most vulnerable, understand how they organize themselves to respond to the impacts of extreme weather events, and seek joint solutions to minimize these impacts. We discuss how the concept of climate justice has (or has not) been adopted and used by affected populations, the Mozambican government, academia, and the United Nations in the wake of recent storms followed by severe floods which caused the death of more than 600 people in 2019 alone. From this analysis, we indicate gaps in public policy development and shared knowledge production, considering differentiated responsibilities for social production processes, consumption, social inequities, and exposure of different social groups to extreme climate events. Our (re)thinking of what climate justice means in Mozambique involves a much greater emphasis on bringing public engagement into climate mitigation, adaptation, and relief processes.
