About us

A human rights observatory is a place to document and share resources relating to human rights issues. The Climate Justice Observatory was inspired by other human rights observatories such as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which documents human rights violations, statistics and news related to the conflict in Syria, or the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Observatory on Smuggling of Migrants, which looks at people-trafficking and different smuggling routes. Based on these existing methodologies, the Climate Justice Observatory aims to gather as many resources regarding climate justice in one place, so that community members can learn, explore and document their own experiences of climate justice.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the seventeen goals that have been agreed by all United Nations members – they form a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. SDG 13 is the climate action SDG: its targets and indicators are often used as a framework for governments and businesses who want to address climate action in a tangible way.

The Griffith Climate Action Beacon surveyed thousands of Australians and found that 57% of us believe that Australia has already started to feel the effects of climate change. Of the respondents 52% had experienced a severe weather event or a natural disaster with 19% suffering financially because of these. Think about your own community: have you noticed that heatwaves, bushfires, flooding, storms or cyclones are becoming more frequent or more severe?

Climate change is a global issue, however there are steps that you can take at a community and household level to try to protect yourself. The Queensland government has launched the Get Ready Queensland program which outlines the steps you can take to prepare for weather risks and natural disasters. They also have a climate change risk management tool for households, which explains the impacts of each weather hazard.

However, the best way to protect yourself from climate change is to support those calling for real climate justice and better government policies.

The best way to get involved in climate justice is to learn from and connect with others to help build community capabilities and resilience to climate injustice. You can play a part by sharing your experiences and documenting change. An excellent way to get involved is to sign up to this page, read the resources available, attend events and support the work of climate agencies and activists.

The Climate Action Observatory has written several explainers that decode the facts, academic research and jargon into readable, everyday language. These resources are a great place to start – feel free to share them with your family friends and community members.

It is important that communities take the initiative to be prepared for coming climate-change-related natural disasters and severe weather events. Preparing for disasters ahead of time can save lives, time and money – when it comes to natural disasters and weather risks occurring, it’s a question of when, not if.

Our mapping tool shows the predicted impact of climate change on your communities by 2030 and 2050. To see how your community will be impacted if we don’t do anything to prevent climate change and just continue as we are, use the controls to see what life will be like in your community in a worst-case scenario.

The Climate Justice Observatory is fully funded by Griffith University through internal research grants.

If you want to get involved or have a question for our team, please feel free to get in touch! We are based at Academic Building 1 (G01), room 2.25, Gold Coast campus, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia, 4222, or you can call us on +61 (07) 555 27263 or email us at climateactionbeacon@griffith.edu.au.