Abstract. This exploratory study traces the emergence of climate justice
claims linked to narratives of Latin American social movements for the
defence of life and territory. I argue that in post-colonial settings,
religious and historical injustices and socio-cultural factors act as
constitutive elements of environmental and climate justice understandings
which are grounded in territories immersed in neo-extractivism conflicts.
Environmental and climate justice conceptualizations have overlooked the
religious fact present in many Latin American socio-environmental movements.
As a result, the intertwined notions of divine justice and social justice
are unacknowledged. To illustrate this claim, I examine socio-environmental
and climate justice claims in a cross-border region between Guatemala and
Chiapas. This region has a common ethnic background but divergent historical
trajectories across the border. Diverse nuances and intensities adopted by
environmental and climate justice practices and narratives on both sides of
the border are examined. The case study reveals the importance of religion
as a force for collective action and as a channel for the promotion of
place-based notions of climate justice. The text calls for the examination
of the religious factor, in its multiple expressions, in the theories of
climate and environmental justice.