Different visions of climate equity that don’t see eye to eye

Over the past decade, there has been a growing desire to link the fight against climate change more closely with issues of justice. City-based movements for climate justice reveal the overlap between climate vulnerability and other issues that require a profound systemic change towards more socially just forms of urban transformation. However attempts being made to integrate justice into climate planning and action by local governments, these efforts often remain superficial and insufficient. So, how do these two types of actors engage on questions of justice? Our case study identifies the climate equity discourse presented by the City of Montreal, Canada, and certain civil society actors following the publication of the City’s new Climate Plan in the early 2020s, in contrast with certain civil society actors who are strongly mobilised on behalf of the climate. We paid particular attention to outsiders, i.e. actors or communities identifying with the environmental movement and the climate justice discourse but are not involved in formal political decision-making processes. Our results contribute to debates on equity in climate planning by providing data on shortfalls in the City's consideration of justice, and by reporting on civil society's mobilisation on these issues. We conclude that there is no dialogue between the City and outsiders regarding their understandings and representations of climate equity, which poses a risk of developing maladaptation.