Voglhuber © FRA, 2024
The Vienna Master had a-one-of-a-kind opportunity to interview the very inspiring climate activist Clover Hogan in the Fundamental Rights Forum 2024. The event took place in Vienna’s City Hall on 11-12 March and was organized by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. In addition to working as a climate activist, Clover Hogan is also a researcher on eco-anxiety and is the founding executive director of Force of Nature. Her activism inspires many people and in her interview, she gives not only very interesting standpoints to the climate crisis and its future opportunities but also important advice for future activists.
Why is it important for climate activists to be present in the human rights forums?
Clover Hogan expresses that the climate and sustainability movement has been all about “nature” so far. She continues that aforesaid has diverted people’s attention from the actuation and its consequences which leads to the movement not being diverse enough. Hogan emphasizes that diversity should be promoted in the climate crisis and nature talk.
“ The climate and sustainability movement does not do a good job centering diverse people’s lived experiences.”
Clover Hogan underlines when talking about the climate crisis it is crucial to hear the voices of the people who are living in the middle of the issue and therefore are the most vulnerable to it. Hogan uses the example of electric vehicles to portray her point. “Many solutions promoted within the climate leave people behind.” For example, electric vehicles are often seen as a heretical silver bullet solution. However, this “solution” leaves the human rights perspective out of the discussion. As we know, the metals used for an electric vehicle battery are mined in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo where worker atrocities are unfortunately often present. The so-called “Western perspective” often fails to take the locality of the problem into the discussion. Thus, terrible worker conditions and also child labor could be avoided by adding interdisciplinarity and locality into the discussion. This should be considered by today’s climate activists thereby diversifying the field to include more perspectives. Hogan notes “In the end the climate crisis is a product of inequality”.
As a solution, Hogan suggests “ how not just to make greener interspaces and protect biodiversity but also create a more fair and equitable world for everyone, which goes in the end hand in hand”. Hogan also notes that often in the Global North people centralize issues such as overpopulation as a problem of China or India when talking about the climate crisis. But a study from last year found that the top richest 1% of people’s emissions equated to 66% of the poorest people’s emissions on the planet. This shows the importance of centering inequality as the main issue when discussing the climate crisis. Instead of shifting the burden onto others, the starting point could be: What can we do?
What would be your advice to the future human rights professionals?
To encounter problems such as those mentioned above, Hogan encourages students to take an intersectional approach. “Within environmentalism, we talk about unattended consequences but we should also see the co-benefits.” Thus, a holistic view is needed to think about these problems in a systematic way. It is important to reflect on who benefits from the current system and does not want to disrupt the status quo to change things. We need to be able to challenge and rethink these systems for a sustainable future.
Minority groups and other vulnerable people should be taken into account, instead of the norm of; “talking about people without necessarily talking to them”.This is to ensure we are centering the actual lived experiences by actively engaging with the very people affected and to not just continue talking about them but hear their perspective.“The very people should not only be part of the discussion when talking about problems but also when we talk about solutions. “
Why do you think education on human rights is important these days?
The climate crisis is the humanitarian crisis we are facing and young people are going to inherit the worst impacts of the decisions made today. Thus we need to educate ourselves to understand the role of human rights and how we can enhance and protect them. It is important to learn from the previous generations what has worked and what has not. Hogan portrays “We have trusted the big corporations to come to the rescue but have had to realize they are not interested and do not do the right thing from the ethical perspective”. This is why Hogan sees International Law, Human Rights, and regulations as having the potential to create solutions to these problems.
“We talk about problems but it’s the time to really create a world that is better for everyone, more equal, more adjust and there is nothing more important and rewarding.”
For our students and future activists, Hogan gives important advice:
- Impact comes from focus: Human Rights are an intersectional and huge challenge and thus: Try not to do all the things because it is a recipe for burnout and rather concentrate on choosing your own focus and work collective.
- Do not forget yourself: “When solving a problem bigger than yourself it’s easy to put the needs of other people before yourself. But you can’t pour from an empty cup. Do not work in a way that perpetuates the system of oppression and burnout that created this problem but rather connect yourself with people that embrace our shared humanity. Do stand up for justice and fight the good fight”.