Climate Justice
Author: Sharad Ghimire Publication Type: Policy Discussion Paper 

The notion of climate justice has received importance in academic, activist and political
circles globally and in Nepal. Political leaders, climate change activists, movement
leaders as well as the academics hardly miss the point about justice—whether explicitly
or implicitly—while they refer to climate change. Nepal’s climate change policy has also
incorporated the concept. While being so attractive to many groups, the notion has been
hardly discussed to its nuances in Nepal as to how it is implicated to policies and
practices. At the global level, climate justice is mostly understood in relation to the
division between the global North and the South in relation to their contribution to
generation of green house gases (GHGs) and hence the responsibility to reduce it, bearing
the negative consequences and having the capacity to overcome the impacts. However,
within a national context in Nepal, specifically in the formulation of public policies and
programs, it remains unclear how the notion of climate justice has been conceptualized or
operationalized. This paper explores through how Nepal’s climate change policy-making
and international representation conceptualize the notion and identifies their nuances and
contradictions. It examines two specific policy instruments, viz., National Policy on
Climate Change and National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA) in regard to their
commitment to and formulation of climate justice. This paper suggests that, while the
notion of climate justice is conceived in contradictory and sometimes opposite ways, it
offers a discursive device for articulating the needs and voices of backward groups. We
also suggest that Nepal’s environmental policy-making requires a change of approach to
deliver the government’s commitment to climate justice.