Climate Justice Fund
Climate justice is a people-centred, human rights-based approach that aims to share the benefits of equitable global development.
A climate justice approach:
- recognises that people in the Global South are least responsible for causing the global climate emergency but are impacted first and most severely by it
- advocates that the Global North holds the largest and most immediate moral responsibility to address the climate crisis
- acknowledges that existing inequalities must be addressed first in order to effectively address the climate crisis, including wealth disparity and marginalisation based upon gender, age, disability and/or indigenous status
Scotland has embedded the principle of climate justice and our commitment to support developing countries to take climate action in our 2019 Climate Change Act.
We advocate for a climate justice approach through all of our international engagement.
Climate Justice Fund
Scotland was the first nation to commit funds specifically to climate justice, launching the Climate Justice Fund (CJF) in 2012, and committing to trebling it to £36 million over the course of this Parliamentary Term (2021-2026).
Since 2021 we have taken a revised approach to our programming, centred on participatory and community-led action, supporting our partner countries to become more resilient to climate impacts.
The CJF aligns with our Global Affairs Framework by taking a values-based approach and mainstreams gender responsiveness, supporting Scotland’s Feminist Approach to International Relations.
The CJF is now fully allocated.
Climate Just Communities
Climate Just Communities (CJC) is the main programme launched under the Climate Justice Fund. This is a £24 million programme, being delivered between 2023 and 2026 (subject to contract extension decisions), equally split (£8 million each) across three countries - Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. The programme is supporting the building of more inclusive and climate resilient communities.
CJC Malawi
Interventions through CJC Malawi are being delivered across the following areas:
- disaster risk management
- livelihoods security
- loss and damage
- resilient schools
- water, sanitation and hygiene
- gender and inclusion
- advocacy, communication and networking
CJC Rwanda
Interventions through CJC Rwanda are being delivered across the following areas:
- loss and damage
- gender and inclusion
- climate resilient agriculture
- disaster risk reduction
- gender, equality, disability and social inclusion
- economic development
- natural resource management
- climate advocacy
CJC Zambia
Interventions through CJC Zambia are being delivered across the following areas:
- climate resilient agriculture (crops, livestock, irrigation)
- economic development (village savings and loans associations, small enterprises)
- water, sanitation and hygiene
- natural resource management
- disaster risk reduction
- gender, equality, disability and social inclusion
- climate advocacy
Loss and damage
Scotland was the first Global North government to commit funding explicitly to address loss and damage. Loss and damage refers to the impacts of the climate crisis not averted or minimized through adaptation and mitigation activities.
To date we have pledged and mobilised £10 million of loss and damage funding. We distributed our initial COP26 £2 million pledge to support communities to address loss and damage in Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands, as well as funding research on needs assessments and case studies to build evidence around how to most effectively address loss and damage.
Of the initial £2 million, we granted:
- £1 million to the Climate Justice Resilience Fund (CJRF) to help communities prepare for and adapt to climate change, tackle structural inequalities and recover from climate-induced loss and damage (2022 to 2023)
- SCIAF £800,000 to support Malawians facing loss and damage in the wake of tropical storms (2022 to 2024)
- Stockholm Environment Institute £75,000 to undertake research on operationalising loss and damage finance (2022 to 2023)
- International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) £150,000 to generate and share innovative thinking on addressing loss and damage at different institutional levels through a series of case studies in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia (2022 to 2023)
Over the course of this parliament (2023-2026) we are partnering with CJRF to deliver a £5 million programme on non-economic loss and damage (NELD). NELD refers to climate-induced loss and damage that is not easily quantifiable in economic terms, such as loss of life, indigenous knowledge, and/or territory. The programme is delivering interventions throughout East Africa, the Pacific and Bay of Bengal, with a specific emphasis on supporting women and girls.
Our £1 million programme delivered through Scotland’s Humanitarian Emergency Fund ran between January and March 2024, as a pilot to assess the effectiveness of humanitarian financial architecture as a mechanism for disbursing loss and damage funding. This funding supported communities in Zambia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Pakistan to undertake gender-responsive work to rebuild after climate-induced extreme weather events.
Our GiveDirectly programme distributed £1 million of unconditional cash transfers between October 2023 and March 2024 to 1800 households from 50 villages across Nsanje District, displaced by Tropical Cyclone Freddy. Recipients used the cash transfers in a variety of ways: including to rebuild homes, undertake agriculture to improve food security and pay medical expenses.
Between January 2023 and February 2024, our £1 million funding to the C40 cities Inclusive Climate Action Programme supported the addressing of urban loss and damage experienced by climate migrant communities, as well as the development of sub-Saharan Africa’s first local just transition process.
International advocacy
Gender and climate justice
We are committed to addressing the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and girls. In 2022, we collaborated with ClimateXChange to produce research on the connections between climate justice, gender and conflict. We remain committed to enhancing the representation and leadership of women in decision-making and UNFCCC processes. From 2018-2023, we supported women from the Global South to negotiate at climate COPs and UNFCCC negotiations through our funding to the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO).
Our funding also supported grassroots and indigenous women leaders to invest in and scale up climate solutions in Global South countries: totalling £388,000 between 2021 and 2024. In 2023-2024, we funded the University of Dundee £90,000 to support three women from the Global South to undertake Fellowships on gender and the environment, as part of the Scottish Human Rights Defendership Fellowship (SHRDF).
Young people and climate justice
Scotland has endorsed the UNICEF Declaration on Children, Youth and Climate Action, committing to key calls to action drafted by children and young people. In 2022, we funded the Climate Youth Negotiators Programme £206,000, which aimed to equip young people with the knowledge and resources to participate in international climate change negotiations. Through our support, we directly funded 35 young people to travel and participate in the COP27 negotiations on behalf of their countries.
Climate justice and Scotland’s International Development Fund
The CJF is distinct from, and complementary to, Scotland’s International Development Fund. The CJF is consistent with Scotland’s International Development Principles, through embedding across all CJF programmes a partner-country led approach.