Chapter 2: True Sustainability: Climate Justice Through (Re)connection

Sustainability is both an instrumental and a vexing word. In this chapter, I argue that a first step towards (re)engaging usefully with sustainability requires taking a step back and examining global narratives regarding sustainability. Originally, sustainability represented a movement to live with a less harmful impact on natural resources and the Earth, but it has been co-opted to defend and maintain the neoliberal status quo and to justify ‘inter/national’ (Vavrus, 2005, p. 177) economic development over locally led initiatives. Sustainability as defined and perpetuated by Global North institutions and governments has not led to the transformative systemic change it promised, instead prioritising so-called balance between economic, environmental, and social concerns.