F E AT U R E
Working together towards Climate Justice and Climate Equity 1
Bringing together landscape practice and citizen energy is essential to achieving justice and equity, argues Judy Ling Wong. Judy Ling Wong
President Black Environment Network
Minorities in the UK are local and global people, in touch with the reality of lives across the world through consistent contact with our countries of origin. We have yet to fulfill our natural role of bringing the story of the world to the table to set the agenda for climate justice and climate equity. The principle is that affected communities should lead. 44
We are living in extraordinary times. The death of George Floyd has sent a wave of emotion across a multicultural world, giving historically significant impetus to action for diversity, equality and inclusion. COVID confronts us with the dire outcomes of ignoring global interconnectedness. Minorities in the UK are representatives of the ethnic majorities of the world. White people make up only 11% of the world’s population. Layers of awareness are shifting the status of ethnic minorities. Climate justice and climate equity are core to the critical negotiations at COP26 to endeavour to ensure a positive future for all of us. The presence of minorities inform negotiations with a mix of vulnerability and strength, fears and hopes that
reflect the precarious position of processes that should take into account the legacy of racism and colonialism. Looking into the deep heart of climate change, I see a moral and spiritual failure of two pivotal relationships: the relationship of people with nature, and the relationship of people with each other. If we love nature deeply enough, we cannot damage it to the extent that we do, and if we love people deeply enough, we cannot damage them as we do. Against the bleak language of policy, the human face of minorities urges the integration of social, cultural, environmental and economic concerns through people-centered environmental policy. The local and the global are one
1. Back gardens combine to form a green space for everyone. © Judy Ling Wong
