The Climate Justice Coalition is a coalition of South African trade unions, grassroots, community-based and non-profit organisations

The Climate Justice Coalition (CJC) is a South African coalition of trade unions, civil society, grassroots, and community-based organisations. Together we are taking on the climate crisis by advancing a transformative climate justice agenda, which works to overcome the deep inequality, poverty and multiple injustices that South Africa faces.

At the root of the climate crisis is an extractive capitalist economic system that exploits people and degrades our environment. To overcome the power of corporations, polluters and politicians blocking action and accountability on climate justice will take all of us working together.

At the CJC, we are working together towards a climate justice agenda which advances environmental, energy, youth, gender, racial, immigrant, social, and economic justice together.

To overcome the economic systems, polluting corporations and corrupted politicians blocking action, we are building a deeper, stronger and more powerful movement to secure climate justice in our lifetimes. We have over 40 member organisations working on various social and environmental justice issues.

We recognise that South Africa, was and continues to be, built on the dispossession of the Black majority and exploitation of the working class people. We aim to work together with workers, unions, and mining impacted and frontline communities to build this vision.

Our coalition seeks to capacitate and empower Black womxn and youth to actively engage in spaces they have been historically and purposely excluded from, as we build an intergenerational, anti-racist, and feminist movement.The CJC is grounded in respect for and the advancement of human rights, equality, dignity, justice and fairness for all.

The work of the coalition is driven by its members and the coalition is governed by a secretariat and an elected steering committee.

The CJC seeks to be guided and driven as much as possible through a bottom up, democratic process through its members. To ensure accountable leadership and direction for the coalition, it is coordinated through a Steering Committee (SC) which ensures strategic leadership, oversight, accountability, and direction for the coalition.

Within the SC, the expanded secretariat works on a more day-to-day basis to enact the vision of the coalition and the SC.

Voting: Members of the SC are selected on the basis of their expertise and relevance to the CJC objectives. This is done through a nomination and voting process. Voting will ideally be run and administered by the coordinator of the coalition.

Ideal Composition: The SC should be reflective of both the people of South Africa, and the diverse and intersectional approach espoused by the coalition. As such we aim to uplift the voices of frontline, working class communities, youth, workers, women, and Black people in all their diversity. We also aim to ensure strong gender and racial representation, aiming for >50% women/lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and agender (LGBTQIA+) and >70% African, Coloured, and Indian people.

To have an SC that represents the diverse and intersectional approach, the coalition suggests an ideal SC make-up will include members from unions, frontline, climate justice, social justice, gender, human rights/legal, unemployed people’s formations, youth, anti-corruption, community-based and faith-based formations.