Climate Justice

As part of the Ocean Breakthroughs initiative, Edges of Earth spoke with Porfiria Gómez, Director of the ocean conservation nonprofit Orgcas in Baja California Sur, Mexico, who is working with local fishing communities to transition from shark fishing to sustainable tourism, blending traditional knowledge with modern conservation practices to protect marine ecosystems and support coastal livelihoods.

As part of the Climate Champions’ Ocean Breakthroughs, exploration team Edges of Earth spoke with Naw Rutha, the only female Karen scuba instructor in the Andaman Islands, who is preserving her community’s ocean heritage by training future divers, protecting marine ecosystems, and learning from past generations to combat climate challenges.

Women are at the forefront of tackling the climate crisis, bringing unique perspectives to drive equity and resilience. This feature highlights eight inspiring leaders proving that inclusive climate action is essential in our race to a better world.

Meet Fany Kuiru, General Coordinator of COICA and the first woman to lead the Amazon’s largest Indigenous coalition. Fany spearheaded the Amazon for Life Fund to empower Indigenous communities by supporting sustainable, self-determined projects across the Amazon Basin.

Meet Michael Kakande, Founder & Chairperson of Resilient40 and champion for climate justice, mobilizing African voices to drive action at local and global levels. Through Resilient40 and initiatives like the African Citizen’s Climate Caravan, Michael is amplifying African youth and community perspectives in the global climate conversation.

Meet Annika Degen, Founder of Gender & Climate, the podcast bringing crucial conversations on gender equality and climate action to listeners worldwide. Through her platform, Annika explores how social inequities, particularly gender disparities, deepen the impacts of climate change, inspiring her audience to consider both crises in tandem.

Building climate resilience for the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians

Meet Maryam Bello, Co-Founder of Parker’s Mobile Clinic, pioneering climate-resilient healthcare in flood-prone regions of Nigeria. Maryam’s mobile health hubs and telemedicine services are bridging healthcare gaps in rural areas, bringing vital medical care directly to underserved communities.

On International Youth Day 2024 meet the Climate Champions Youth Fellows driving change across the globe. These inspiring young professionals are leading the charge in climate diplomacy, working alongside UN Climate Change High-Level Champions for COP28 and COP29.

As part of an ongoing series to support the Climate Champions’ Ocean Breakthroughs, the Edges of Earth expedition team met with a woman whose family has been at the centre of Cabo Pulmo for generations —Judith Castro. During their conversation, Judith talked about how she has grown up alongside Cabo Pulmo, sharing the losses and the wins — and how she and her family transformed the oldest coral reef on the west coast of North America.

São Paulo faces increasing threats from climate change. Intense rainfall, prolonged droughts, and unprecedented heatwaves threaten the city, necessitating swift action to ensure a livable and equitable future. Here’s how São Paulo is setting the bar for climate resilience.

The Climate Champions are collaborating with the Edges of Earth expedition team, spotlighting local environmental champions around the planet to amplify the Ocean Breakthroughs via exclusively published content.

Discover the inspiring journey of Chuen in our latest Edges of Earth series, as she navigates the challenges of coastal tourism — one of five key sectors for the Ocean Breakthroughs — while upholding her deep commitment to community and nature.

Jennifer Morris, CEO of The Nature Conservancy, addresses the urgent need for more innovative climate adaptation strategies. Morris emphasizes transforming stakeholder engagement and enhancing financial support mechanisms, advocating for governance by Indigenous Peoples and local communities. She calls for radical collaboration across governments, businesses, and civil society to address the climate crisis and close the adaptation finance gap swiftly and fairly.

As part of a new series to support the Ocean Breakthroughs, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions and the Edges of Earth expedition explore how a community is adapting to and combating the impacts of climate change in the capital of Sri Lanka. The Edges of Earth team had the opportunity to spend two weeks living alongside Hafsa Jamel (pictured), learning about their work supporting local nature-based solutions that aim to mitigate climate challenges in their home country.

As the 4th International Conference on Small Island Developing States begins, Dr. Adelle Thomas, Climate Adaptation Lead of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and IPCC Vice Chair of Working Group II, emphasizes the critical challenges these nations face due to climate change. 

As the winners of the 2023 Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Environments (RISE) grants challenge are announced, we take a look back at the transformative work of the 2022 cohort.

How have we got here? The profound question we need to ask as a human family. What has led us into a crisis so monstrous it threatens our existence. Who spoke for our species, determined a worldview where ‘success’ looks like eight men owning the same wealth as half the world, where we have passed […]

Three members of the Frontline Community Delegation (FCD), Maria Pedro de Pedro, Briseida Iglesias Lopez de Guerrero, and Maricela Fernández Fernández, shed light on the urgent realities faced by those most directly impacted by climate change. Their stories reveal not only the challenges but also the resilience and solutions found within frontline communities.

The ROOH campaign, as detailed in its latest book, addresses the challenges faced by poor communities against a backdrop of outdated urban development planning and increasing displacements due to climate-related and social disturbances.

The grasp is in our hands to shift the course of Just Transition, transforming the challenges posed by the double-edged sword in employment into promising and sustainable opportunities for the younger generation, argues Climate Champions’ Energy Youth Fellow, Chaeyoung Hyun.