In Between Rhetoric and the UNFCCC’s Detachment from the Lived Realities of the People on the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) the world’s main forum for climate change negotiations is in a deep and ever-growing crisis. Between the piece-meal and inadequate pledges on emission reductions by developed countries (historical high emitters) that threaten to quickly catapult us to a 3.5 degree global temperature rise that will disproportionately affect those in the Global South, to the undue influence by fossil fuel companies and their lobbyists both blocking and co-opting progressive action in the space, the UNFCCC almost seems completely incapable of delivering on its mandate. While it is clear that the international climate negotiations seem completely disconnected from the material realities of those on the front-lines of the climate crises, a growing transnational climate, food and energy justice movement(s) is stepping up to challenge the glaring incompetence of the international negotiating space while also providing real alternatives to the multiple and intersecting crises of climate change to local communities around the world.