On February 11, 2022, the 8th National Meeting for Climate Justice was held in Coimbra, which was attended by the JustFutures Team. It was an extremely interesting day where several activist groups were able to share and reflect on the state of climate action in Portugal.
On the January edition of Nature Climate Change, volume 13, Anabela Carvalho published a commentary emphasising how discourses matter in climate change and their potential for creating alternative futures. The full commentary can be read here.
On the 12th of December, an interview was aired during Ciência, on Antena 2, with the principal investigator (PI) of the project, Anabela Carvalho. The PI had the opportunity to present the relevance of the JustFutures project in the national panorama. She also presented some results derived from the mapping of the climate movement, and the tasks still in progress. These are: analysis of climate activism groups’ discourses, analysis of the representation of these groups in the mainstream media, creation of discussion groups with young people on how they envision climate change and an ethnographic study that follows the groups of the youth climate movement.
The conversation can be heard here.
The researchers of the JustFutures project, Daniela Ferreira da Silva and Tânia R. Santos, presented their work at the VIII International Congress on Cultures that took place in Braga, at the ICS-Universidade do Minho from 5 to 7 December. Tânia R. Santos was part of the working group “Journalism, (in)visibilities and activism” where she presented an analysis of the television representation of youth climate activism. Daniela Ferreira da Silva presented an analysis on the uses of science in the communication of young climate activists on digital platforms as part of the working group on “Media literacy, activism and new technologies”.
On November 8, the Report on Climate Activism in Portugal developed by the JustFutures team was disseminated by Público newspaper. Anabela Carvalho, the principal investigator interviewed for this piece, reflects on the identified climate activism groups in Portugal and their diversity. The article was integrated into the newspaper’s new information section, Azul, which aims to discuss issues related to the environment and sustainability.
Access the article in Portuguese How strong is the climate movement in Portugal?
Anabela Carvalho presented “Youth activism on climate change: analysing visions on politics and social transformation” during the 9th European Communication Conference that took place in Aarhus, Denmark on 19-22 October. Anabela Carvalho discussed the socio-environmental visions of young climate activist groups, and the visions of democracy that are being constructed, specifically by Climáximo, Greve Climática Estudantil and LIDERA a Década do Clima.
On October 13 Daniela Ferreira da Silva presented at the IX Doctoral Conferences of CECS at the University of Minho in Braga. The work presented is part of her PhD doctoral studies exploring the “Evocation of science by climate activists: a gap in knowledge”. The researcher discussed the process that has led to identifying a gap in scientific literature and how she will address it by critically looking at the ways in which young climate activists evoke the field of science in their communication.
On October 11 Daniela Ferreira da Silva presented at the Digital Activisms in Dialogue Seminar, which took place at CICSNOVA in Lisbon, the work explored the “Uses of digital platforms in communication on climate change – a look at the youth climate movement in Portugal”. At this meeting, the researcher had the opportunity to discuss the diversity of uses and communication strategies on digital platforms by Portuguese youth activists, in particular by the Student Climate Strike and Extinction Rebellion (which appeared between 2018/2019), as well as by two national initiatives, Climaximo (the oldest group, 2015) and Lidera a Década do Clima (2020).
On 23 September, Maria Fernandes-Jesus, with the collaboration of Carla Malafaia, gave a presentation on “Youth voices for climate justice: activists articulating and envisioning futures” during the International Conference of Community Psychology in Naples, which took place from 21 to 24 September 2022. This presentation was integrated in the symposium “Promoting social justice engagement between powers and privileges”.
Dora Rebelo also helped to facilitate a collaborative workshop during this conference entitled “Community Psychology and Migrant Justice” where scholars discussed the social complexity associated with migratory injustices.
The JUSTFUTURES research project team launches a report in which it presents an overview of the groups that have participated in climate activism in Portugal.
The report maps 68 groups that have climate change as their focus of action. There are also 105 groups that do not focus exclusively on climate change but have climate change as one of their areas of action. In addition, 102 groups supported some climate activism (e.g. by subscribing to a manifesto), even though climate change was not one of their areas of action. Overall, the data show a multifaceted picture of the movement.
This mapping was carried out between October 2021 and April 2022, and the dynamic character of the movement should be highlighted, so changes in the data presented here will have occurred – and will continue to occur.