Climate change and social inequalities: the gap between climate solutions & environmental justice

The Davos World Economic Forum (2023) confirmed that Climate risks and social inequalities are two sides of the same crisis. Inequalities represent one of the greatest obstacles to sustainable urban regeneration in smart cities, for a real equitable future based on a neutral climate scenario. Therefore, it is unthinkable to believe that we can tackle the climate crisis while ignoring the issue of inequalities, as the benefits achieved on one front could be neutralized if we do not simultaneously act on the other. In fact, as Therborn argues, inequality represents a violation of human dignity; the negation of any possibility for each person to develop his or her abilities. According to Therborn, inequality has several consequences and takes different forms: premature death, poor health, discrimination, exclusion from knowledge, subordination, poverty, humiliation and segregation from where social life predominantly takes place, lack of self-confidence, powerlessness and lack of possibilities and opportunities in life. So, it’s not just a matter of the size of one’s wallet. Rather, it is a socio-cultural structure that suppresses one’s abilities, any resources to participate fully in social life, as well as self-respect and sense of self (Therborn, 2013). The fight against inequalities, within and between states, therefore represents one of the main 17 objectives of the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. Simultaneously, several studies on the placement and role of the Anthropocene within the discourse of today’s crisis show that humanity’s impact on the planet and its contribution to climate change, while certainly not new phenomena, had never been so rapid in time and with such devastating consequences (Pievani & Varotto, 2021). Considering these changes, the effects of the climate crisis could risk becoming true multipliers of all the forms of social and economic inequalities that already exist, expressed through parameters such as class, ethnicity, gender, age, income, etc. The resulting complex, often overlapping, pluralities lead to the creation of new social identities, characterized by significant intersectionality and increasing inequality - at the level of vulnerability - between different communities and people. This process of rapid change, combined with the enhanced intensity and frequency with which drastic weather events are expected to occur soon, will dangerously increase the risk of causing irreparable political, economic and social damage. Issues related to climate justice, therefore, nowadays assume a central role in the process of ecological transition and in the implementation of climate policies. This study proposes to apply a critical reflection of these theories, demonstrating the inseparable correlation between fragile areas/populations and the impacts of climate crises through the selection and analysis of some case studies referring to Genoa, an historically polycentric city, shaped by multiple centralities and peripheries. This study will also allow to consider some dynamics and theories generally projected on a global scale of reference, by experimenting them on a local/urban scale, considering the several and profound differences existing within the same city. This research aims thus to demonstrate how the fight against social inequalities could represent a concrete opportunity to think about new theoretical paradigms in a neutral climate scenario toward an actual equitable ecological transition, opening new possibilities for sustainable urban regeneration in smart cities. The paragraphs below will be structured as follows: paragraph n.2 1 Alessandra Terenzi, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, alessandra.terenzi@unimib.it ORCID 0000-0002-8642- 3893. 2 Received: 18/02/23. Revised: 01/08/23. Accepted: 23/10/23. Published: 31/10/23. 50 will investigate theoretical literature referred to the mutual influence between urbanization processes, climate change and inequalities, as well as between power domination and submission; paragraph n.3 briefly traces the methodological approach, even assuming some insights related to possible future work; in paragraph n.4, the theories analyzed and proposed in section 2 will be applied and investigated for some specific contexts in the city of Genoa; in section n.5, some insights will be proposed with respect to the definition of possible future scenarios related to environmental justice.