On the World Environment Day 2025, my social media feed was filled with celebrative posts as usual with long quotes and the action like planting trees, cleaning rivers etc. The one post that really made me pause and reflect was a post where one of the senior professionals wrote Happy World Environment Day and other quotes related to it with the glass of juice in the hand and plastic straw on it. Seeing the picture I thought, the person being well aware about the Climate Crisis and its implication in Nepal and globally, how can s/he upload such a post? At least the person should have been conscious while using it and also posting in social media. Then it struck my mind that, being a Climate Justice Activist I am stuck in such small behavioral change (which is much needed but not limited to), how the people that are far away from these issues' politics think about Climate Justice and the necessary actions. I started to observe among the people and realized that climate action has mostly been messaged and limited to behavioral change and influenced as personal responsibility. This has been the dominant narrative on climate action among many which is keeping us far away from the economic transformation that we need to address the root cause of the climate crisis.
Taught us to feel guilty
From the time we were in elementary school to the current time, we were taught that caring for the environment is an individual virtue and messages are heavily focused on showing it is a personal responsibility. In the school textbooks, posters on saving the environment, campaigns from the group and community, always headed with the message that you’re responsible to save the planet. Plant the trees, avoid plastic, turn off the tap while brushing, reduce the shower time, turn off lights, - Be a conscious consumer and many more, which certainly will “Save the Planet”.
While these messages are not wrong, the changes come from every single individual small effort, whereas these actions advertised largely as climate action dangerously obscure the real culprits. Over time this approach of focusing on individual behavior in the form of climate action has narrowed the concept of how we understand the current climate crisis we are facing. It has created a feeling of guilt particularly among youth and communities from underprivileged and working-class backgrounds especially from Global South, who often already carry the weight of impacts of climate crisis, state based discrimination, and many other injustices. Many grow up believing that they and their families are part of the problem because they are not practicing the solutions that are supposed to save the planet or living “sustainably” as per the popular standard. It's something people carry in daily life that makes them more guilty than motivating. It is high time that we debunk the myths and how we should respond to them and make the global north more accountable to years of inactions and carbon dependent economy models.
The underlying hypocrisy
Meanwhile, while we are trying to be the perfect citizen, the polluters, the elites, corporate, fossil fuel lobbyists, the real culprits operate in the plain sight often with pride. These million-billion-dollars corporations often tend to fund the campaigns saying “Green” solutions, “Sustainable” practices etc. as a solution to the climate crisis. While we are worried about the drop of water, they are digging one more new oil well. While we felt bad for using plastic bags, these corporations are continuously emitting greenhouse gases with their heavily polluting, extractivism, and exploitative profit orientated industry without pause. These are the same corporations that are funding the awareness program campaigns, launching the green and eco- friendly products while throwing dyes and colours in rivers, oil companies promoting green solutions, fossil fuel tycoons funding the summits and their own net-zero ambitions, and many more.
The strategy of shifting the blame
This isn't a coincidence, but it's a strategy and calculative thought of changing the narrative. By turning the global and structural crisis to personal guilt, these profit seeking mafias have succeeded to shift the focus away from them while they carry on business as usual. They are pulling with the strategy to hide themself under the green logos and get befitted by the populism approach with the green tag around the world. Climate Change is not only an environmental issue but deeply a socio-political and economic one. It’s tied to economic inequality, colonial history, the continued oppressive system and exploitation of the working class people and the land. While we internalize the guilt, we often tend to forget to visualize the bigger picture of the crisis and question- about the fossil fuel subsidies, the geopolitics, green capitalism, the false solutions, the unjust and oppressive system, the concentration of power and profit.
Who’s really emitting?
According to a study by Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute in 2020, the richest 1% of the global population were responsible for more than double the CO₂ emissions of the poorest 50% between 1990 and 2015. This shows that the people from Global South and other poor countries are taught to feel guilty for not living “sustainably” as per the popular standard, while the world’s ultra-rich continue to fly in private jets, own multiple mansions, and invest in fossil fuels without shame or accountability. It’s time to change the narratives that have been manufactured by allies of the global north document, corporate in the global south.
Environment action ≠ Climate Action
This brings to the critical conclusion that while environmental protection is necessary and actions are must, all the action for it is not equal to climate action. Currently, we can see lots of the environmental protection/conservation activities are falsely advertised as climate action and this dilution is dangerous. Climate action must address the root cause of the climate crisis. Therefore, before we act, post, react, speak, we must ask; Is this addressing the real climate crisis? Does this action change the current system? Who will be benefitted from the action?
So what next?
We have already carried the guilt for a very long time, which never was ours. Especially the Global South countries that are experiencing the burn of the climate crisis, they are not only the victims but have the capacity in finding the real solution. Now it's time to dismantle the current imperialistic and neoliberal system and rewrite the narrative based on people power and rooted in justice. Some of the actions we can take, among others, include exposing and confronting large corporations, the billionaire class, and the extractive systems that have profited from environmental destruction; organizing mass movements from the ground up by strengthening local initiatives, linking them to global struggles, and collectively resisting and challenging corporate power; transforming climate education and awareness beyond simplistic environmental messaging to highlight how the crisis is tied to capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and racism, and exploring ways to confront these systems; and, wherever possible, building, supporting, and scaling up local, practical solutions and alternatives.
( The author is a climate justice activist.)