Transformative approaches to address climate change and achieve climate justice

The need “transforming our world” is recognised not only by academics but also in the commitment of national governments to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While transformation is clearly needed to address the paramount challenges of climate change and sustainable development, there is less clarity on what transformation entails in practice and how it can be shaped in order to both tackle climate change and achieve climate justice.

The chapter will outline definitions and framings of transformation and transformative change from a human rights–based perspective and focus on two key aspects: first, it will introduce the debates on broader socio-economic transformation for sustainable development, which is intrinsically linked to climate change mitigation and addressing the causes of climate change. It will explore the justice dimensions of changing production and consumption patterns and outline the eco-social approach to policy and practice that prioritises sustainable and just social and ecological outcomes over profit-making. This section will illustrate transformative eco-social approaches such as the alter-globalisation movement and social and solidarity economy (SSE).

Second, the chapter will introduce the debates on transformative adaptation to climate change and illustrate approaches that aim to tackle the impacts of climate change. It will start with an overview of definitions of transformative adaptation and focus on those that integrate justice questions into their approaches.

The chapter will close by bringing together the common threads from the different transformative approaches to address climate change, which can inform rights-based decision-making and policy-making for climate justice.