Climate Justice Series: Environmental Casteism and Climate Disaster

The humanitarian impact of the climate crisis on vulnerable communities, which have historically contributed the least to climate change, is now recognized in scholarship and policy. The question of financial payments-from developed to low-income countries- for loss and damage resulting from climate change was front and center recently at the world’s largest climate gathering, the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28). What has received far less attention is climate justice within countries, such as India, that have deep-rooted and intersecting structures of inequality based on caste, gender, and religion.
The Ambedkar Initiative at the Institute for Comparative Literature & Society, the Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, the SIPA Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Climate & Engagement (DEICE) Committee, Columbia Climate School, and South Asia Institute are hosting a series of discussions examining social and economic justice issues related to climate change and energy transition in India. The first session, “Environmental Casteism and Climate Disaster,” focused on how the climate crisis is reinforcing the vulnerabilities of oppressed communities and highlight the importance of an anti-caste framework for research and practice.
Two experts, scholar Srilata Sircar and Pulitzer-Grantee Journalist Suprakash Majumdar, were in a conversation moderated by Deepali Srivastava, editor of CGEP’s Energy Explained. Dr. Anupama Rao, director, the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, and the convenor of the Ambedkar Initiative will deliver welcome remarks. This series honors the legacy of Columbia University alum and India's civil rights icon, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891-1956) as an economist and an environmental rights leader, whose vision builds a bridge from past to present.