Film-screening & roundtable discussion: Global Day of Action for Climate Justice: Decarbonization – A just transition?

REGISTER HERE

Screening of The Fisherman and the Banker, introduced by director Sheena Sumaria

Discussants: Alex Bennett (ClientEarth) and Dr Agnieszka Smoleńska (CETEx) as 

Chair: Dr Marie Petersmann(Assistant Professor of Law at LSE Law School/GSoS)

For the Global Day of Action (GDA) for Climate Justice—taking place every year on November 17—join us to discuss this year’s theme on ‘Decarbonization: A just transition’.

The idea of ‘just transition’ originated in labour movements in relation to the necessity to transition away from our fossil fuel-dependent global economy. Changes in the production and consumption of energy bear major consequences for communities who economically depend on healthy working conditions within those sectors, and those who existentially depend on healthy living conditions in or around those economic activities. Despite increasing climate pledges to transition away from fossil fuels, however, some highly CO₂-emitting activities are still being developed and financed by global development banks, with nearby communities bearing the costs of corporate pollution.

The 2024 documentary The Fisherman and the Banker, directed by Sheena Sumaria, addresses these issues by focusing on a fishing community in India’s Gulf of Kutch. The community launched a landmark case against the World Bank’s private lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), for funding a coal-fired power plant that threatens their way of life. Filmed over a decade, the documentary captures the fishermen’s fight against industrial encroachment and their alliance with US lawyers to file a groundbreaking lawsuit, which reached the US Supreme Court in 2018. What can this community’s decade-long struggle teach us about challenging the power asymmetries embedded in global climate finance? Join us for this rare opportunity to explore how communities can challenge global financial institutions, with insights from legal and policy experts working at the frontlines of accountable climate finance.

Programme:

• 5:00-5:05pm: introduction by film-director Sheena Sumaria
• 5:05-6:30pm: screening of The Fisherman and the Banker (85mins)*
• 6:30-6:45pm: roundtable discussion with Alex Bennett (Lawyer in the Accountable Finance team at ClientEarth) and Dr Agnieszka Smoleńska (Senior Policy Fellow at the Centre for Economic Transition Expertise at the Grantham Research Institute)
• 6:45-7:15: Q&A with the audience

Chair: Dr Marie Petersmann

* Drinks and snacks will be provided for the film screening.