While global leaders showcase carbon reduction targets and green transition plans, a starker reality unfolds beneath the surface. The climate crisis is not merely a physical threat of rising temperatures; it is, first and foremost, a structural crisis of social and spatial inequality that divides the globe into the protected and the exposed.

For decades, we have measured national resilience and economic development through rigid indicators like Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Yet, these metrics remain entirely blind to the most critical question of our era: Who pays the environmental price of industrial pollution, and who is safeguarded against its escalating consequences? Reducing the climate debate to green technologies and carbon market quotas misses the point. To catalyze real systemic change, we must pivot toward a more profound concept: environmental justice and climate democracy.

To enable empirical comparison and offer an objective view of this reality, we have formulated the Global Environmental and Climate Justice Index (GECJI) at the Tahadhari Center and the Mediterranean Climate Justice Network. The index evaluates the performance of four major geopolitical systems—the European........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)