Around the World
The impacts of the climate and ecological crisis are not felt equally around the world. The countries and communities who have historically contributed the least to environmental degradation and climate change face the worst impacts. To achieve climate justice we need to acknowledge and repair the history and legacies of colonial violence and extraction that have led to the climate crisis and support poorer countries, communities and individuals.
Indigenous peoples represent less than 5% of the global population but are thought to protect 80% of the world’s biodiversity. It is important that we recognise communities who are most impacted by climate change as leaders with solutions, alternative knowledge systems, and stories of resistance and resilience to learn from.
This toolkit section offers resources and case studies of creative climate action from around the world.
– Image credit: N’dau Festival of the Arts local base in Chipinge, Zimbabwe.
Creative case studies
If Not Us Then Who
An online directory of films made in participation with Indigenous communities around the world. The films span themes of activism, different knowledge systems, how the communities live in harmony with the planet, and how climate and environmental changes affect their lives.
Women Hold Up The Sky
Through the eyes of women impacted by extraction projects in South Africa, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Women Hold Up the Sky explores stories of resistance and communities in active struggle to regain control of their land, their rights and their bodies.
Pacific Climate Warriors
A youth-led direct action group taking on Australia's fossil fuel industry
JB Highlights
Additional resources
Oilwatch
Network
Oilwatch is a network focused on solidarity across the Global South, seeking to stop the expansion of destructive fossil fuel extraction activities.
Weaving land, life and justice within, through and beyond colonisation
Video
A webinar from the Global Environments Network, including a resource list shared by the speakers
The World at 1C
Research
News and resources from the young communications initiative of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.
The Green Belt Movement
Profile
Founded by Professor Wangari Maathai, The Green Belt Movement empowers communities, particularly women, to conserve the environment and improve livelihoods in Kenya.
Ken Saro-Wiwa
Profile
Ken Saro-Wiwa was a writer, television presenter and environmental activist. He was killed, along with 8 others for protesting Royal Dutch Shell's oil extraction in his native Ogoniland. The activists are collectively known as the Ogoni 9.
Hip Hop Caucus
Profile
Hip Hop Caucus tackles environmental injustice by empowering Black communities in the USA to engage in the democratic process
Cecilia Vicuña
Profile
A Chilean poet, artist, filmmaker and activist whose work explores climate change, decolonisation, and the relationship between humans and the environment
Small Island, Big Song
Audio
A music, film, live project recorded in nature by over a hundred musicians across 16 island nations of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, a region in the frontline of cultural and environmental challenges.
Artivism Hour
Profile
An advocacy campaign from Surge Africa bringing together six artists from across Nigeria to explore climate change impacts
Landscape as Evidence: Artist as Witness
Profile
Indian artist led organisation Khoj staged Landscape as Evidence: Artist as Witness, a hearing before a Commission of Inquiry using art to consider how to measure ecological loss, premising art as valid evidence.
Fashion Revolution
Profile
Fashion is one of the most polluting industries globally. Fashion Revolution, founded in the wake of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, campaigns for a clean, safe, fair, transparent and accountable fashion industry. Environmental protection and circularity are key principles in their organisational manifesto.
Wang Chau Village: (Non) Indigenous wisdom amidst eviction
Profile
An online paper and zine from artist Michael Leung detailing land injustice and dispossession in the Hong Kong village of Wang Chau.
Barranquilla +20
Profile
A Colombian youth-led NGO focused on climate policy through advocacy, music and culture, mobilisations, and education. They feature in the JB Creative Climate Film series.
Displacement journeys
Profile
A collaborative art project supporting the Platform on Disaster Displacement, cultivating artistic responses to climate and disaster displacement.
Loss and Damage Collaboration
Profile
An interdisciplinary group of practitioners, researchers, activists, and decision makers working to ensure that vulnerable countries have the support they need to address climate change related loss and damage.
