A new WACC resource makes the vital link between climate justice and communication rights, outlining how the climate crisis is also a communication crisis that demands investment in community-led communication ecosystems.

Filling the Infrastructure Gap: Why we need democratic communication and information to achieve climate justice sets out how communication is an essential dimension often overlooked in policy discussions about emissions, energy transitions, and adaptation strategies.

“This publication promotes communication justice for the communities most impacted by the effects of climate change,” says WACC Director of Programmes Lorenzo Vargas.

Such communities are usually the first line of defense against an extractivist economic model, he notes, a model that is leading to the destruction of crucial ecosystems as mining, oil extraction, and industrial-scale agriculture expand around the world.

However, as the new advocacy resource states, “communities cannot participate in decisions they don’t know about, advocate for their rights without evidence, or hold decision-makers accountable when information is inaccessible or manipulated. They cannot meaningfully participate when there are no platforms to make their voices heard locally and beyond.”