Reframing climate justice: A BIPOC-led climate justice speaker series

When it comes to the climate crisis, one of the climate movement’s dominant narratives is that it will affect “future generations”. Yet, marginalised communities, including Black, indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) in Europe, are already being affected.

Systemic Justice is introducing an exciting speaker series that tells this alternative story from the perspectives of Black, indigenous, and people of colour in Europe who are actively resisting racial, social, and economic injustice.

Over five instalments, we delve into the root causes of climate breakdown and explore the links between the crisis and other systemic harms to understand the unique impacts on BIPOC communities, the community-driven action being taken to address this emergency, and how we as a climate movement can ensure no one is left behind in the pursuit of true intersectional climate justice. 

Join us for part 5

Shaping the future of Europe’s climate justice movement: The next generation of environmental defenders

🗓 24 April 2024

⏰ 17.30-18.30 CET

📍 Online on Zoom.

In our fourth episode, we will examine the complex interplay between climate justice, freedom of movement, and environmental racism in Europe.

We will be joined by three fantastic speakers, Rose Wanjiku from International Women* Space, and Pelin Tan and Leyla Keskin from Arazi Assembly. The conversation is in English and Turkish with live French, Spanish, and English sign language interpretation.

Watch previous episodes

Watch episode 4

In our fourth episode, we examine the complex interplay between climate justice, freedom of movement, and environmental racism in Europe.

Speakers: Rose Wanjiku from International Women* Space, and Pelin Tan and Leyla Keskin from Arazi Assembly.

Watch episode 3

In our third episode, From redlining to greenling: exploring spatial injustice in an environmentally unjust Europe, we address how Europe’s historical legacy of spatial injustice has shaped contemporary environmental inequality in the context of green colonialism, eco-gentrification, and social cleansing of racialised communities living in urban and rural spaces.

Speakers: Niila-Juhán Valkeapää from the The Sámi Youth Council and Rukiatu F. Sheriff from Collective Against Environmental Racism.

Watch episode 2

In our second episode, Uncovering the racialised origins of the climate crisis: A look into eco-imperialism, we explore the historic role of colonialism in the extraction of wealth and subsequent conquest, disinheritance, and dispossession of racialised peoples from nature. 

Speakers: Mama D. Ujuaje from Community Centred Knowledge and Nary Götze from Black Earth Kollektiv.

Watch episode 1

In our first episode, we uncover the transformative potential of climate justice and intersectional approaches to the climate crisis. As we look back on the history of climate justice and its roots in Black liberation movements, we begin to explore the relevance that these approaches have in today’s fight for a just world, and how BIPOC communities in Europe are developing real solutions to respond to the disproportionate impacts of climate breakdown. From here, we can begin to make the necessary shift from ‘climate change’ towards an intersectional climate justice perspective.

We launched our inaugural episode at the Othering & Belonging conference held in Berlin on 27 October 2023. You can watch the live video recording of the episode on our YouTube channel or below.

What's coming next

BIPOC CJ Speaker Series Episode 4

Episode 4: Solidarity across borders: A look at environmental racism, migration, and the right to self-determination

In our fourth episode, we delve into the complex interplay between climate justice, freedom of movement, and environmental racism in Europe. The question of who gets to decide to stay or leave is one that we will endeavor to address while we confront the stark realities of migrants and racialised communities who bear the brunt of climate breakdown while facing systemic barriers to self-determination across the continent.

Time and date: 20 March 2024, 17.30-18.30 CET

Sign up here.

BIPOC CJ Speaker Series Episode 5

Episode 5: Shaping the future of Europe’s climate justice movement: The next generation of environmental defenders

In our final episode, we shine a spotlight on the collective power and creative resilience of young people in the fight for our planet’s future.

Time and date: 24 April 2024, 17.30-18.30 CET

Sign up here.

We are also launching a podcast soon to continue having these conversations, so stay tuned!

Join us for part 5

Shaping the future of Europe’s climate justice movement: The next generation of environmental defenders

🗓 24 April 2024

⏰ 17.30-18.30 CET

📍 Online on Zoom.

Introducing our moderator for the series

Samie Blasingame is the Creative Director of Food in my Kiez, sits on the board of Greenbuzz Berlin with whom she runs the #FeedingBerlin series, and organises with the Berlin-based climate and environmental justice collective, Black Earth. Her work and political ethos revolve around community building and collective imaginations toward a just and resilient future.

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