South Africa’s Climate Justice Charter Movement

Launched in 2020, South Africa’s Climate Justice Charter (CJC) is a grassroots-driven legal and moral framework responding to the country’s escalating climate crisis. Informed by communities, scientists, and activists, the CJC calls for a deep just transition—advancing systemic alternatives that address both climate and social injustices. Though not yet adopted by parliament, it has been endorsed by nearly 300 organizations and more than 6,000 individuals and is actively used by educators, communities, and civil society to drive awareness and collective action.

This case exemplifies Systemic Risk Response (SRR) criteria of Complexity, Justice, Universal Responsibility, Sanctity of Nature, and both Individual and Collective Agency. The charter articulates a vision rooted in ecocentric ethics, decoloniality, and participatory democracy. It challenges dominant growth paradigms and frames climate justice as a path to broader socio-ecological transformation. The CJC shows how systemic change can emerge from below—through pluri-vision, education, and shared power—despite institutional barriers at the national level. This case study is part of ASRA’s SRR Case Studies series—find out more in From Benches to Boardrooms: Responding to Systemic Risks.

Case study: South Africa’s Climate Justice Charter Movement

Overview: South Africa is seriously affected by climate change. Some 63% of South Africans have already experienced severe effects from the changing climate (IPSOS, 2023) such as higher temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and more frequent extreme weather events. The region is considered a climate change “hotspot” making it especially vulnerable to shocks (IPCC, 2018). The South Africa Climate Justice Charter Movement (CJC) was launched in 2020 following the worst drought in the country’s history. Informed by input from water-stressed communities in South Africa, including academics, climate scientists, activists, and other stakeholders, it aims to raise awareness about climate emergency, unite social justice actors, and initiate a “deep just transition”—a community-driven, socio-ecological transformation rooted in climate and social justice, eco-centric living, participatory democracy, and international solidarity, ensuring that the most vulnerable are at the center and that future generations inherit a livable place (CJCM, n.d.).

South Africa’s constitution allows for the adoption of charters of rights (SA Dept. of Justice and Constitutional Development, 2024). To this end, the CJC was presented to South Africa’s parliament in 2020. The charter takes a holistic view of the climate emergency, stating that “through addressing the climate crisis, which affects everything, we can also advance solutions to all socio-ecological crises.” Importantly, it recognizes the need for “systemic alternatives” to address climate change and commits “to advancing such alternatives and democratic systemic reforms from below” (CJCM, n.d.).

The CJC and its supporting movement is an exemplary systemic risk response, embracing concepts of Universal Responsibility, Justice, Complexity, and Individual and Collective Agency. Although the charter has not been formally adopted by South Africa’s parliament, it has been endorsed by almost 300 organizations and over 6,000 individuals. It is being used at the grassroots level by communities, activists, and academics, to educate populations on systemic risks and responses.

Highlights in Systemic Risk Response

A systemic risk response encompasses any action that deliberately seeks to mitigate, prepare for, adapt to, and/or transform away from the harms of systemic risks. Rooted in ecocentric ethics, decoloniality, and participatory democracy, this example shows how systemic change can emerge from below—through pluri-vision, education, and shared power—despite institutional barriers at the national level.

Complexity

The CJC is a sophisticated text. It: acknowledges that South Africa faces many crises but that “the climate crisis is the most dangerous”; highlights the “disastrous consequences” of rising emissions; and stresses that systemic responses are needed “to address the causes of climate change, its risks and pressures for systems collapse.” Importantly, it notes that by addressing the climate crisis, South Africa can tackle other systemic challenges, stressing that “systemic alternatives” will be central to “the just deep transition.” The charter foregrounds a range of risks and responses across multiple global systems, including:

Environment and climate change systems:

1. Socially owned and community-based renewable energy through a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels.
2. Democratize the water commons.
3. Zero waste and simple living.
4. Rights of nature and natural climate solutions.
5. Climate conscious media.

Food systems:

1. Feed ourselves through food sovereignty.

Governance and social order systems:

1. Enjoy life through working less.
2. Democratic and deep just transition plans.
3. Eco-social housing, buildings and transition towns.
4. Knowledge is crucial for survival.

The economy:

1. Beyond mainstream economics.
2. The rich must pay their ecological debt.

Transportation & communication systems:

1. Eco-mobility and clean energy public transport systems.

Health systems:

1. Emergency, holistic and preventative healthcare (CJCM, n.d.).

Universal Responsibility and Sanctity of Nature

At its heart, the CJC portrays a deep understanding of universal responsibility and the sanctity of nature. These principles are central to the first three goals of the charter:

• Goal 1: Advance an awareness that we thrive and co-exist on one planet. Earth is a common home for all species. Thus, we seek to affirm our role and responsibilities as guardians of our planet’s ecosystems and the delicate web of life it supports.
• Goal 2: Inspire a break with the thinking that caused the crisis and that reinforces the obsession with growth, progress, and domination. The power of humanity is constrained by the limits, cycles, tipping points, and boundaries of all ecosystems. More of the same thinking that harms Earth is forcing it to react with a power we cannot match.
• Goal 3: Reconnect with an Earth-centered conception of what it means to be human. Nature is endless, and we are just one small part of it. We must appreciate that every element of an ecosystem has an intrinsic value and must be respected.

Justice, Individual and Collective Agency, and Sanctity of Nature

The charter calls on communities at all levels to advance a “deep just transition to ensure socio-ecological transformation” (CJCM, n.d.), and outlines eight principles that will underpin that process:

1. Climate justice: Those least responsible must not be harmed or carry the cost of climate impacts. The benefits of socio-ecological transformation must be shared equally.
2. Social justice: Confronting all forms of discrimination and oppression…to secure climate and social justice.
3. Eco-centric living: To live simply, slowly, and consciously, in an eco-centric way, which recognizes the sanctity of all life forms, our inter-connections, and enables an ethics of respect and care.
4. Participatory democracy: All climate and deep just transition policies must be informed by the voices, consent, and needs of all people, especially those facing harm.
5. Socialized ownership: People’s power must express itself through democratic control and ownership…to ensure collective management of the life enabling commons and systems.
6. International solidarity: In the context of worsening climate shocks, international solidarity is central to the deep just transition as it serves to unite all who are struggling for emancipation and for a post-carbon world.
7. Decoloniality: We will actively delink from this system as we affirm an emancipatory relationship between humans and with non-human nature rooted in our history, culture, knowledge and the wider struggle of the oppressed.
8. Intergenerational justice: Care for our planetary commons and ecosystems is crucial for intergenerational justice.

Transformation

The charter has potential for transformative change. It provides a “pluri-vision,” addressing the legacies of apartheid, and the current polycrisis, while seeking to secure a livable, just, and democratic future for all. It offers a compass for deep just transitions at all levels of society. To date, almost 300 organizations and over 6,000 individuals have endorsed the charter. The movement has also developed tools and policies for activists, to guide their work on decarbonization, adaptation, and regeneration.

Key Insights and Lessons Learned

South Africa’s Climate Justice Charter Movement is an exemplar of the Transformation and Complexity criteria demanding a focus on tackling root causes of systemic risks. It promotes individual and collective agency through a pluri-vision that fosters new forms of power to strengthen democracy. It embraces emancipatory knowledge rooted in an ecocentric ethics of care and advocates for democratic systemic reforms from the ground up.

Key lessons to note for systemic risk response efforts:

1. Cultivate and champion a transformative vision: Through the rejection of a purely growth-driven model, it envisions socio-ecological systems that operate within the limits of the biosphere and, in doing so, finds a way to promote both universal responsibility and non-human sanctity. At its core, it champions a post-productivist theory of change that places the natural commons at the heart of socio-ecological reproduction.
2. Identify roles and pathways to drive transformation: The government’s own structures are not set up to consider such a holistic topic. There is no specific committee in parliament that is mandated to deal with such a cross-cutting charter, and this is a key challenge faced by the movement and has thwarted the charter’s formal adoption by parliament so far. However, a new presidential climate commission will be responsible for assessing climate change and could be positioned to deal with a holistic charter in the future (interview with Awande Buthelezi, August 2024).