O Justice, Where Art Thou? Developing a New Take on Climate Justice

Abstract

Since the beginning of the political debates in the 1980s, questions of justice have been at the core of the quest to find a political solution to global climate change. The literature has thus far identified a number of key justice dilemmas, central questions and justice principles. However, apart from a few exceptions in the ‘non-ideal theory’ strand, the majority of scholars has focused on the philosophical and theoretical level, making it difficult to transfer their ideas to the actual political struggles on the ground. The aim of this working paper is thus a twofold one. Firstly, it maps and discusses the most influential climate justice positions that the literature has developed so far. Secondly, it introduces three conceptions of justice, namely non-domination, impartiality, and mutual recognition, that are more attuned to the political struggles around climate change. The main objective is to discuss how they relate to the existing climate justice positions and to sketch out new ways of thinking about climate justice that allow us to critically examine the policies and behaviour of key actors in the international negotiations on climate change.

Keywords: Climate change, environment, ethics, justice