A Conversation with Internationally Recognized Activist and Environmental Lawyer, Farhana Yamin
The CJRF published this blog as part of our efforts to present at South by Southwest in 2022. We’re thrilled to announce that our panel proposal, “Why We Need to Go All in on Climate Justice,” featuring Farhana Yamin, and climate activist and researcher Maria Alejandra Escalante, was successful! To learn more about this inter-generational conversation, visit our page on the SXSW schedule.
Farhana Yamin is a lawyer and climate policy expert who has advised leaders from small island states and vulnerable countries on climate negotiations for more than 30 years.
She was an advisor to the Republic of the Marshall Islands for the Paris Agreement negotiations from 2013-2018. Since 2009, she has served as deputy chair of the Expert Group of Advisors to the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a coalition of 48 of the world’s most vulnerable countries, that has fought for fairness and ambition in the UN negotiations. She is widely credited with getting the science-based goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 into the Paris Agreement as a way to end the era of fossil fuels.
Yamin spoke with CJRF about her work and how she sees the next generation answering the call of climate justice.
What does climate justice mean to you?
Climate justice is about putting people, their lived experience, and the fight for justice center stage. It means looking at the causes and impacts of climate change from the point of view of people – not from the point of view of physics, economics, or vested interests benefiting from the status quo. It’s looking at the perspectives of people, especially those who have been marginalized and have less power or have suffered from previous injustices, and who are seeking their fair share of power.
How has your intersectional identity — as a woman, lawyer, immigrant, etc. — informed the work that you do?
I came to the United Kingdom from Pakistan in 1973 when I was only eight and half. I knew only five words in English: hello, goodbye, blue, red, and green. I was labeled an “immigrant,” and shocked to experience discrimination, taunts and racial slurs. My parents had spoken so highly of England, so it was very sad to feel rejected as an unwelcome outsider. To this day I feel like I love England more than England loves me!
I’m also a Muslim, and this aspect of my identity has become subject to a hostile environment. Especially since 9/11, the whole Muslim world is portrayed as a monolith, treated with suspicion, and demonized as terrorists, similar to how Communism and communists were treated in the 1950s in the United States.
The different strands of my identity have informed the way I approach things. I did well at school and I was the first woman in my family to attend university. I qualified as a lawyer and have the privilege of an excellent reputation and a measure of financial security. But institutionalized racism and gender biases are as rife in law as they are in every other facet of society. These realities made me determined to use my talents to challenge and change the status quo. As a result, my work within United Nations’ climate negotiations is mainly with Global South countries and the people with less power and privilege who aim to create a fairer, kinder, and greener system.
Given the enormity of the crisis and the lack of response of many political systems, fighting for change can be frustrating. What keeps you going?
Life is such a privilege. There’s always joy – in relationships, friends, nature – there’s always something to appreciate. I practice gratitude daily to the things that are beautiful and to the people who love me. Ruth Bader Ginsberg said, “Fight for the things you care about.” That is what keeps me going.
It can be lonely, especially the regrets and the climate grief I experience reading the latest scientific report about tipping points or watching wildfires and cyclones ravage communities. Relentless fundraising, dealing with deadlines, big egos and turf wars, as well as feeling the hurt and anger of activists can be tough to deal with. It’s vital to have a set of friends and a convivial support network to keep you going.
In your experience, what actions truly drive change?
People supporting each other, organizing, and agitating together drives deep, lasting change.
Individual acts of resistance, courage, and solutions are what matter in the end. They’re all at different scales, and no one scale is better than the other. If kids organize around getting a recycling bin in their school and then get it, that’s a big victory. It’s not just the big global climate negotiations that matter – it all matters.
Individual agitation and the appetite to craft a bespoke solution is empowering. In my professional life, I've had the privilege of agitating. I’ve used my legal skills and, frankly, my physical stamina during complicated negotiations that sometimes run around the clock. I’ve stuck with people trying to make a difference, and we’ve come up with practical solutions that might not be perfect but are better than doing nothing.
Where do you see your generation making a difference?
I’m 56 years old. I’m very excited about that; my age dominates my thinking right now, especially as a mother. I have four children and seeing them grow to become activists and fiercely demand deeper change galvanizes me. They have as many brilliant ideas as I had when I was 25 years old, sassy, and going to the UN for the first time!
Young people are shaping a completely different world. We’ve especially seen this in the last two or three years in the fierceness with which this generation is demanding change. Black Lives Matter, for example, demands not just policy tweaks here and there, but for everything that is unjust to be dismantled and rebuilt in a way that aligns with the equality, dignity, and worth of every human being. It’s wonderful and makes me realize settling for anything less is incrementalism!
The trans and non-binary community is also an incredible model for us all. They think outside of every box the world tries to put us into– at birth! – and they’re questioning and imagining the world in a way that feels open to the equality of possibility for everyone. If they can create a world for themselves in which the foundational ways people think about human identity can be flexed to include more ways of being and perspectives, then surely, we can envision an economic system that is better than capitalism which is driving inequality and jeopardizing all life on Earth.
I feel like a different cycle is coming for me. I could keep working with good health for another 30 years, but that means someone younger won’t get any of those jobs, consultancies, or positions that I have. Millennials, Gen Z, and the younger generations need opportunities to contribute. People like me have to be happy to share their experiences and need to use their wisdom to make space and pass on the baton.
Can you describe the book “This is Not a Drill” to those who are not climate activists? How does this work inspire them to take action?
We all have to change how we think and live to address the climate crisis, and this book is a handbook for rebellion in everyday life. It contains practical as well as pedagogical advice on how to rebel – at least for those living in the UK. I contributed to one of the chapters, “Die, Survive or Thrive,” because these are the choices we’re being presented with.
I have a lot of professional titles but always include “Rebel for Life” as an email signature that describes me and demands action. When I say rebellion, I mean rebellion against business as usual – whether this business as usual is in your personal life, work-life, or our economic and political structures. We need to rebel – from the heart – on all fronts.
With the CJRF, you have submitted a proposal to discuss climate justice at South by Southwest in 2022. If accepted, what do you hope attendees get out of “Why We Need to Go All in on Climate Justice?”
I hope attendees are inspired and fired up to rid the world of toxic structures that predefine and diminish life’s opportunities and possibilities. We need absolute determination to change the world to be more justice-centered, but we need to do it with kindness for ourselves and others and with recognition of the work that’s already been done. We’ve come a long way, and the next generation is going to take us even further.
To hear more insights from Farhana Yamin, support the CJRF in our quest to present at South by Southwest in 2022. CJRF’s panel proposal, “Why We Need to Go All in on Climate Justice” will feature a conversation between Farhana Yamin and climate activist and researcher Maria Alejandra Escalante of FRIDA | Young Feminist Fund.
Visit the proposal page to read more and vote today! Check out this blog for instructions on how to vote.