On the morning of 4 June, the director of the Fundació Catalunya Europa, Dolors Camats, took part in the XIII UB - Família Torres Environmental Conference, held in the Aula Magna of the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona. The conference, entitled ‘Environmental Justice: rethinking capitalism to avoid collapse’, brought together specialists and activists from various fields to reflect on how environmental law and the transformation of the economic model can be key tools for tackling the climate crisis.

The conference was structured in two parts: a first block focused on climate justice and law, and a second more oriented towards economic issues and alternatives to capitalism. Camats took part in the final round table, ‘Social and climate justice in a convulsive world’, where he shared the debate with representatives of Greenpeace, the UB Solidarity Foundation and the Debt Observatory in Globalisation.

In his intervention, Camats underlined that climate vulnerability already fully affects northern societies, and that forced displacement for environmental reasons - although often subtle or internal - is already a reality that needs to be tackled with a global outlook and local solutions. He called for a rethink of governance instruments to address growing inequalities and highlighted the role of local and regional governments, as well as other actors such as civil society, women and conscious consumption.

One of the highlights of his speech was when he stated: ‘The main instrument that humanity has invented for social justice and social balance is called taxation’, thus claiming taxation as a central tool for social and climate justice and recalling that there is still much room for improvement in this area.

Finally, he argued that capitalism does not have to collapse in order to transform it, but it does have to be limited, and he defended the law as a historical instrument for guaranteeing justice and reducing inequalities, warning that the great challenge today is democratic governance capable of responding to global challenges.