My PhD dissertation highlights the distinction between the CO2-energy and climate justice worldviews in climate change organizing.
Put briefly:
[C]limate justice (CJ) activists emphasized the linkages between climate change and other justice issues in both diagnosing the causes of climate change and in crafting their political strategy to control it, insisting that only revolutionary political and economic changes like the overthrow of capitalism will let humanity preserve a stable climate. This analysis and prescription is challenged by CO2-energy (CO2-e) activists who see climate change as fundamentally about fossil fuel energy, with a solution that lies in replacing coal, oil, and gas.
One area where the two viewpoints can be clearly distinguished is how to respond to Indigenously-backed fossil fuel energy projects. The climate justice viewpoint holds that environmentalists should be led by and not criticize Indigenous peoples. For them, if the Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it community in BC wants to build a coal mine, it is at least much harder to oppose while maintaining their values than the same project proposed by someone else. For CO2-e activists, it is about the fuel to be burned and not the identity of those benefitting, and so it is unproblematic to resist fossil fuel projects regardless of their backers.
Related:
Poilievre announces consultations with First Nations on resource revenues
Feds should ‘cede tax room’ to resource companies who make payments to First Nations, Tory leader says
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/poilievre-first-nations-industry-resource-1.6724827
Could an Indigenous-Owned Pipeline Be a Force for Good?
A wealth gap exists between Indigenous peoples and other Canadians. Some First Nations believe buying the Trans Mountain pipeline might fix it
https://thewalrus.ca/could-an-indigenous-owned-pipeline-be-a-force-for-good/
In the upcoming election cycle, no member of the trio stands to benefit more than Peltola, the first Alaska Native to represent the state who won a special election last summer to succeed late-Republican Rep. Don Young.
Peltola, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee alongside Huffman, was just added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s list of most vulnerable incumbents for 2024.
“Getting Willow across the finish line is something I campaigned very hard on,” she said Monday. “I knew this had to be a priority of anybody who was the position I’m in.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/14/murkowski-biden-on-willow-alaska-00086897
Indigenous-led prospective buyer ‘not going away’ even as Trans Mountain costs spiral
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/trans-mountain-pipeline-indigenous-buyer-price-tag-1.6782533
Project Reconciliation in Calgary working to facilitate purchase for 129 First Nations
Tensions rise over the Nisga’a Nation’s plans to build pipeline across Northern B.C.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-nisgaa-nation-bc-pipeline-construction/
A B.C. pipeline project touted by the Nisga’a Nation as a prime example of economic reconciliation has instead become a thorny issue marked by rising tensions and complications with nearby Indigenous groups.
Construction of the 750-kilometre Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) project across Northern British Columbia is proving to be controversial. In particular, the Gitxsan Nation and Gitanyow Nation both have traditional territories that the natural gas pipeline would cross.
On Monday on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a group of Gitxsan hereditary chiefs held a rally in downtown Vancouver to draw attention to their concerns, including what they fear could be heavy-handed RCMP enforcement of potential court-ordered injunctions to quell protests in northwestern B.C.
The BC Energy Regulator decided in April to grant a permit for one section of the PRGT pipeline, but it wasn’t publicly announced until July.