Decolonizing Climate Justice: Amazonian Youth Resisting Northern Hegemony in the Global Climate Movement From 2018-2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15642/siyar.2026.6.2.338-356Keywords:
Fridays for Future, Pemuda Amazon, keadilan lingkungan, globalisasi gerakan, Global North–SouthAbstract
This study examines inequalities in the globalization of the climate movement through the case of Amazonian youth activism, specifically focusing on Txai Suruí’s participation in COP26 in Glasgow (2021). Academic concern arises from the Global North’s dominance over the narratives and leadership of Fridays for Future (FFF)—a dominance that reproduces structural inequalities rooted in colonial legacies of extraction and knowledge hierarchies, often relegating affected communities in the Global South to the role of symbolic representatives. Employing a descriptive qualitative method and a critical analysis of secondary sources (academic literature, movement documents, funding reports, action databases, and media coverage from 2018–2025), the study evaluates environmental justice through the dimensions of distribution, procedure, and recognition. The findings reveal that while Amazonian youth have gained visibility in international advocacy spaces, their access to resources, agenda-setting authority, and recognition of their ecological knowledge and local cosmologies remain limited. The study asserts that environmental justice can only be achieved through the redistribution of power and resources, the strengthening of Indigenous leadership, and the restructuring of the global climate movement to ensure it is substantively, rather than merely symbolically, inclusive.Downloads
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