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The climate crisis is a human-made environmental emergency — and a driver of global injustice and inequality. Millions of lives and livelihoods are at risk, particularly those in the Global South, even though they have contributed the least to the crisis. To overcome the climate, but also the human-made food crisis, we need a radical transformation. But how can we fight a system so deeply ingrained in our lives? Capitalism is influencing the way we think, it is in our food, the roads we walk on, and it determines the supposed answers to the crisis. When it comes to climate protection and food security, too often false solutions are proposed that serve the companies and countries of the Global North more than they contribute to actually solving the crises. Capitalistic power imbalances and the exploitation of resources and labor continues.
What is going wrong? And how can things be done differently?
The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, in collaboration with its offices around the world, has created a map showing how false solutions exacerbate that climate and food crises around the globe. Twelve examples and brief explanations of key terms illustrate who benefits from the measures supposedly designed to mitigate the crises, and who bears the costs. It shows that green capitalism is not the solution—it is part of the problem.
But the fold-out map has another side. It stands for a socially and ecologically just future - bring on the good life! Examples and additional explanations show how many projects already exist worldwide that contribute to greater justice and sustainability. The projects presented include local initiatives as well as national, regional, and global programs and approaches for climate justice and food sovereignty. Some of the projects have a long history, while others arose spontaneously as a response to specific emergency situations. The examples presented here are only a small selection. A multitude of initiatives worldwide show that it is possible to deal with the current crises in a different way and that better solutions exist. Solutions that are not profit-oriented and do not pass the burden of transformation onto others. It is time to unite our struggles and implement the solutions on a larger scale – there is no planet B!
Too often, we see the mistakes of the past repeated: A rush for resources that exploits communities, tramples on rights, and damages the environment.
António Guterres, UN-Secretary General at the COP29 High-Level Meeting
Here you find more information about the individual examples.
The map is currently available in English and German and can be ordered free of charge. It will soon also be available in Spanish, Portuguese, and French.
