Paper short abstract:

The paper examines an evolving relationship of climate (in)justice and climate reparations. It locates the debates of climate (in)justice within the discursive practices of the leadership, student groups,and activist representatives of the small island developing states (SIDS).

Paper long abstract:

The leaders and the peoples of the small island developing states (SIDS) have been at the forefront of driving the global movement for climate justice. Yet, scholars such as Burkett (2016) have meticulously underlined the marked shift in the discursive practices used by the leaders of the SIDS in global platforms such as the UNFCCC. “Compromise language” is preferred to shape what comes in hand tangibly (climate finance) for their acutely climate vulnerable communities, rather than what goes into – or rather – what does not get into the text, given the continued push backs from the developed countries of the world. Interestingly, the discourse of reparations has caught the imagination of diverse social movements in recent years. These include movements for and by climate vulnerable communities and activists of the SIDS such as the Pacific Students Fight Against Climate Injustice(PSFCI) and the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network(PICAN).These groups raise questions that are not only political, legal, and economic but are also moral. Despite using diverse discourses, the common ground between the activists, students groups, and SIDS’ leadership remains that of seeking urgent climate justice. I examine this evolving relationship of the climate (in)justice and reparations among the diverse groups that represent the SIDS. I draw on informal conversations with state representatives and activists, interviews and fieldnotes from COP 29, shadowing the PICAN and the PSFCI members in the processes for the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on State’s obligation to climate change, and grey literature.