The collective work of the Climate Justice Universities Union is guided by five principles of climate justice:

1) the climate crisis is a symptom of extractive and exploitative systems that need to be transformed

2) decarbonisation and emissions reduction efforts must be linked with transformative public investments in healthcare, housing, public transport, care work, education, and other basic services that every community needs and deserves

3) local, regenerative, and community-focused production of food, energy and other necessities must be cultivated and supported to improve wellbeing and restore ecological health and biodiversity of land and water

4) fossil fuels must be rapidly phased out;

5) solidary against violent oppression, militarisation, and the material and knowledge-based legacies of colonialism and imperialism.