Social justice vital for climate deal: Amartya Sen

PARIS - Global warming has a strong impact on the poor and world leaders must pay attention to social injustice while negotiating climate deal, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has said.

The impact of global warming is much stronger on the poorest populations, however, “when it is time to negotiate the climate issue, inequities are not taken into account”, Sen said addressing a conference at the University of Political Science here Tuesday.

The economist stressed that issues such as malnourishment, women subjugation, lack of medical care, illiteracy and diseases require the priority attention of political parties, the civil society and media, Prensa Latina reported.

Referring to his book ‘The Idea of Justice’, Sen explained that justice should not seek perfection but focus on concrete issues.

He said social justice is the only alternative to face the challenge of global warming specially after the failure of the UN Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen.

“Changes are needed to modify the current world economic order and each nation. A change in that sense can not be at a short-term, not even at a medium term, but it is necessary to start paving the way,” he argued.

Sen also insisted on the importance of education in dealing with the climate change challenge.

“It is clear that everything is a process in which the first step is to give humans the valuable tool of knowing how to read and write,” he added.