Why North-South Intersectionality Matters in Climate Justice: Perspectives of South Asian Australian Youth Climate Activists

Introduction

Foreword

Climate change is already unfolding in Australia, as seen through the catastrophic floods in southeast Queensland and Northern New South Wales in late summer this year. However I feel at odds with having to imagine Australia as the epicentre of the unfolding global climate crisis, and this is why. I come from South Asia, a region that includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and is home to a quarter of global humanity. It is one of the world’s most climate vulnerable regions on account of a large poor, rural, and subsistence-livelihoods-based population. Millions of such South Asians are already on the frontlines of climate impacts and have far less coping capacity compared to average Australians owing to a range of factors. We only need to observe the devastation to human lives caused by the Pakistan floods to appreciate this difference.

The global South and low-lying island-countries are already facing irreversible climate impacts. If Australia is a poster child for what the rest of the world WILL be dealing with (note the future tense), then has South Asia, and broadly the global South, and millions who are already climate-vulnerable there, been rendered invisible? Since we are all in this climate crisis together, what role can Australian climate activism play to ensure that climate vulnerable people in the global South are not rendered invisible in the western imagination?

These questions lead into the purpose of this research report which is a first-of-its-kind of climate justice report highlighting the role migrant people of colour activists can play in Australian climate activism by: putting the global climate crisis in perspective and asking Australia, an affluent country where settler colonialism still persists, and one of the world’s largest exporters of coal, the fossil fuel most responsible for climate change, to take climate responsibility for the whole planet.

Why North-South Intersectionality Matters in Climate Justice; Perspectives of South Asian Australian Youth Climate Activists is based on interviews with 12 Australian youth climate activists of South Asian origin. The report highlights stories connecting climate impacts in South Asia and Australia that respondents have intergenerationally learnt and experienced. It addresses challenges faced by youth activists of colour in making space for such climate stories in a white-dominated Australian climate movement, where the narrative emphasises risks to Australians in the future.

The report suggests pathways for diversifying the story in Australian climate activism to make it inclusive of life-experiences of migrants from South Asia and more broadly the global South.

Why North-South Intersectionality Matters in Climate Justice and its suggestions provide a timely intervention into Australian climate activism and its narrative. Successive Australian Bureau of Statistics data demonstrate that Asian and particularly South Asian migrations are rapidly increasing racial diversity and multiculturalism in Australia. Evidently, this rapid increase in racial diversity and multiculturalism in Australia is being driven by migrations from parts of the world that are already climate vulnerable. But Australia’s climate movement remains largely white-dominated and does not reflect this increasing diversity in Australia society.

Diversifying the climate movement and its narrative can, through inclusion of intergenerational migrant stories that connect climate vulnerable places in the global North and South such as Bangladesh and Western Sydney, create a model for effective climate solidarity. With geo-political relations between Australia and South Asia, based on coal and other forms of energy increasing, and with a sizeable South Asian diaspora in Australia that is well engaged in public dialogue, building an Australian-South Asian climate solidarity can prove especially relevant as a first step towards North-South solidarity.

Finally, this report is both for youth and older South Asians and POCs in Australian climate activism; to think through how they can strengthen their stories and leadership. It is also for the entire climate movement in Australia; to reflect and transform its narrative and approach towards diversity.

Dr. Ruchira Talukdar
Climate Justice Researcher,
Activist working across Australia and India,
Co-Founder at Sapna South Asian Climate Solidarity

We need to move away from centering our middle class lives and focus on the vulnerable such as South Asian communities…when things get worse in the future and there are climate migrations there will be a lot of ugliness like xenophobia…There is a lot of individualism in the movement now, it is a lot about personal gain, come, take photos, but we have to build kindness in the movement…also link with the refugee movement…to prepare for the future.

Contents

• Foreword: Why The Global South Matters in Climate Activism
• Introduction: Stories of South Asian Australian Youth Activists Bring North-South Intersectionality
  • Literature
  • Aims and Questions
  • This study
• Methods
• Profiles
• Findings
  • Why I Became a Climate Activist
  • Our Stories and
  • Places Matter: Bringing the Family Along
• Discussion and Recommendations for Action: Building Young South Asian Australians’ Climate Leadership
  • By Telling Embodied Climate Stories
  • Connecting Global North-South climate stories
  • Foregrounding Intersectional Vulnerabilities
  • Socially Reframing Climate Stories for Justice
  • Next Steps: Solidarity, Community and Advocacy
• Future Research
• About Sapna South Asian Climate Solidarity
  • Sapna’s Work
  • Report Findings Set Directions for Sapna’s Work
• Appendix
  • Author Biography
  • Report Peer Reviews
  • Map of Western Sydney
• Bibliography

We unfortunately talk only about how Australia’s future is at risk. It is a privilege actually to still be able to talk about the future. In the Indian subcontinent, flooding happens every year. It is now! Australia is made up of so many communities. If we talked about all the countries represented in Australia, so many POCs could get into the climate space.

Report Snippets

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Why North-South Intersectionality Matters in Climate Justice: Perspectives of South Asian Australian Youth Climate Activists

About Us

Sapna South Asian Climate Solidarity is a collective for climate justice in the South Asian diaspora in Australia made up of South Asian climate activists, academics, campaigners and school strikers. We started during lockdown as a way to bring together people with South Asian heritage in the diaspora and climate movement, and to explore what radical solidarity and climate justice could look like in the climate work that we all do.