The negative effects of climate change in developing countries are inextricably linked to historical colonial exploitation, which has left populations vulnerable to environmental threats and reduced their ability to implement mitigation and adaptation strategies according to an analysis on climate justice. Decades of imperial rule deprived most people in the global south of fundamental educational, nutritional, and medical systems, alongside eroding traditional lifestyles and vital knowledge for coexisting sustainably with the environment.
Thousands of indigenous people were removed from their land and pushed into poverty as colonial powers developed. This history sowed the seeds of regressive social practices and corrupt, authoritarian governments for the colonised, creating often insurmountable obstacles for developing countries to address the climate challenge effectively and equitably. The global north has imposed a development model based on the unconditional exploitation of nature and human beings, leading rich global investors to profit from the vulnerability of the working class and marginalized communities in developing countries.
Structural Causes Drive Unequal Disaster Impacts
Nations and populations that drove climate vulnerabilities and forced resource-constrained, innocent communities to face environmental catastrophes must collectively shoulder the costs of adaptation and mitigation. As noted by a former secretary-general of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, nature’s contribution to natural disasters often simply exposes the effects of deeper, structural causes. The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated how severe social crises can have asymmetrical effects at both national and global levels, serving as a template for understanding humanity’s unpreparedness to deal with the climate crisis.
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