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A Research Agenda for Climate Justice
Climate change will bring great suffering to communities, individuals and ecosystems. Those least responsible for the problem will suffer the most. Justice demands urgent action to reverse its causes and impacts. In this provocative new book, Paul G. Harris brings together a collection of original essays to explore alternative, innovative approaches to understanding and implementing climate justice in the future. Through investigations informed by philosophy, politics, sociology, law and economics, this Research Agenda reveals how climate change is a matter of justice and makes concrete proposals for more effective mitigation.
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Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
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Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary.
Climate change will bring great suffering to communities, individuals and ecosystems. Those least responsible for the problem will suffer the most. Justice demands urgent action to reverse its causes and impacts. In this provocative new book, Paul G. Harris brings together original essays to explore innovative approaches to understanding and implementing climate justice in the future.
Through investigations informed by theories from philosophy, politics, sociology, law and economics, this Research Agenda reveals the actors most responsible for climate change and suggests concrete proposals for more effective mitigation. Addressing the distribution of scarce resources and the disproportionate responsibility of affluent nations and people, this insightful book asserts that climate change is a matter of equity, fairness and social and distributive justice. It argues that climate change is shaping up to be the greatest injustice in all of human history.
This analytical and thought-provoking Research Agenda will be a valuable tool for climate change researchers while its interdisciplinary approach will appeal to students and academics researching in the fields of global environmental politics, sustainability, international relations, environmental philosophy and law. The examination of the key questions of climate justice from global through to individual levels will also aid policy-makers, practitioners and activists.
Climate change will bring great suffering to communities, individuals and ecosystems. Those least responsible for the problem will suffer the most. Justice demands urgent action to reverse its causes and impacts. In this provocative new book, Paul G. Harris brings together original essays to explore innovative approaches to understanding and implementing climate justice in the future.
Through investigations informed by theories from philosophy, politics, sociology, law and economics, this Research Agenda reveals the actors most responsible for climate change and suggests concrete proposals for more effective mitigation. Addressing the distribution of scarce resources and the disproportionate responsibility of affluent nations and people, this insightful book asserts that climate change is a matter of equity, fairness and social and distributive justice. It argues that climate change is shaping up to be the greatest injustice in all of human history.
This analytical and thought-provoking Research Agenda will be a valuable tool for climate change researchers while its interdisciplinary approach will appeal to students and academics researching in the fields of global environmental politics, sustainability, international relations, environmental philosophy and law. The examination of the key questions of climate justice from global through to individual levels will also aid policy-makers, practitioners and activists.
Critical Acclaim
‘Theoretically rich as well as empirically based, . . . this is an important and timely contribution to the climate justice literature.’
– Environmental Politics
‘The writing throughout is animated by a sense of urgency and ethical purpose. This volume will interest scholars focusing on climate change, environmental policy, global environmental issues, and sustainability.’
– J.L. Rhoades, Choice
‘In his introduction to A Research Agenda for Climate Justice, Paul Harris says that it is not far-fetched to suggest that climate change is becoming the greatest injustice ever perpetrated in all human history. He may well be right. Yet how do we get others – and in democracies, a majority of voters – to see it this way? The contributors to this book not only show, from their different perspectives, why climate change is an injustice, but also take steps towards answering that question.’
– Peter Singer, Princeton University, US
‘What should we do? Better to start with: What should we not do? The answer: Most of what we are now doing. This demands provocative, innovative research. The contributors in this exceptional volume consider future generations, effective policies, rich and poor, wealth vs. welfare, wild creatures, technology, degrowth, risks, rights, refugees, individuals in nations, large and small. There is no better analysis of the prospects of failure and success in climate justice.’
– Holmes Rolston III, Colorado State University, US
‘Paul Harris has assembled a collection that examines important lingering questions in climate justice but also plots a new course for research in the field. Harris and his contributors explore how climate justice might be more broadly conceptualized and effectively advanced, extending the field’s focus well beyond the questions about burden-sharing among nation-states that dominated its first decade.’
– Steven Vanderheiden, University of Colorado, Boulder, US
‘Paul Harris has been tracking the academic climate justice debate for a very long time. In this book, the depth and texture of his knowledge shows, as does the importance of his subject. The climate emergency is a justice emergency, all the way down. To stabilize the Earth System, we’ll have to face that reality, in all its facets. The real agenda is action, but the research agenda here could help to open doors. It’s all we can really ask.’
– Tom Athanasiou, EcoEquity, US
– Environmental Politics
‘The writing throughout is animated by a sense of urgency and ethical purpose. This volume will interest scholars focusing on climate change, environmental policy, global environmental issues, and sustainability.’
– J.L. Rhoades, Choice
‘In his introduction to A Research Agenda for Climate Justice, Paul Harris says that it is not far-fetched to suggest that climate change is becoming the greatest injustice ever perpetrated in all human history. He may well be right. Yet how do we get others – and in democracies, a majority of voters – to see it this way? The contributors to this book not only show, from their different perspectives, why climate change is an injustice, but also take steps towards answering that question.’
– Peter Singer, Princeton University, US
‘What should we do? Better to start with: What should we not do? The answer: Most of what we are now doing. This demands provocative, innovative research. The contributors in this exceptional volume consider future generations, effective policies, rich and poor, wealth vs. welfare, wild creatures, technology, degrowth, risks, rights, refugees, individuals in nations, large and small. There is no better analysis of the prospects of failure and success in climate justice.’
– Holmes Rolston III, Colorado State University, US
‘Paul Harris has assembled a collection that examines important lingering questions in climate justice but also plots a new course for research in the field. Harris and his contributors explore how climate justice might be more broadly conceptualized and effectively advanced, extending the field’s focus well beyond the questions about burden-sharing among nation-states that dominated its first decade.’
– Steven Vanderheiden, University of Colorado, Boulder, US
‘Paul Harris has been tracking the academic climate justice debate for a very long time. In this book, the depth and texture of his knowledge shows, as does the importance of his subject. The climate emergency is a justice emergency, all the way down. To stabilize the Earth System, we’ll have to face that reality, in all its facets. The real agenda is action, but the research agenda here could help to open doors. It’s all we can really ask.’
– Tom Athanasiou, EcoEquity, US
Contributors
Contributors: R. Attfield, I. Bailey, F. Corvino, A. Dietzel, J. Donhauser, P.G. Harris, S. Kopra, J.S. Mastaler, S.R. O’Doherty, G. Pellegrini-Masini, A. Pirni, D.E. Storey, C. Swingle, C. Tornel, I. Wallimann-Helmer
Contents
Contents:
Preface ix
1 Climate justice: the urgent research agenda(s) 1
Paul G. Harris
2 Vital needs and climate change: inter-human, inter-generational and
inter-species justice 15
Robin Attfield
3 Common but differentiated responsibilities: agency in climate justice 27
Ivo Wallimann-Helmer
4 The world as it is: a vision for a social science (and policy) turn in
climate justice 38
David E. Storey
5 National climate-mitigation policy: the spatial framing of
(in)justice claims 52
Ian Bailey
6 Climate change and capitalism: a degrowth agenda for climate justice 64
Carlos Tornel
7 A cosmopolitan agenda for climate justice: embracing non-state actors 77
Alix Dietzel and Paul G. Harris
8 Social justice and ecological consciousness: pathways to climate justice 91
James S. Mastaler
9 Climate justice in practice: adapting democratic institutions for
environmental citizenship 104
Giuseppe Pellegrini-Masini, Fausto Corvino and Alberto Pirni
10 Climate refugees: realizing justice through existing institutions 118
Justin Donhauser
11 Pre-emptive justice for future generations: reframing climate change
as a ‘humanitarian climate crime’ 131
Selina Rose O’Doherty
12 Climate justice after the Paris Agreement: understanding equity
through nationally determined contributions 143
Claire Swingle
13 Responsibility for climate justice: the role of great powers 158
Sanna Kopra
Index 171
Preface ix
1 Climate justice: the urgent research agenda(s) 1
Paul G. Harris
2 Vital needs and climate change: inter-human, inter-generational and
inter-species justice 15
Robin Attfield
3 Common but differentiated responsibilities: agency in climate justice 27
Ivo Wallimann-Helmer
4 The world as it is: a vision for a social science (and policy) turn in
climate justice 38
David E. Storey
5 National climate-mitigation policy: the spatial framing of
(in)justice claims 52
Ian Bailey
6 Climate change and capitalism: a degrowth agenda for climate justice 64
Carlos Tornel
7 A cosmopolitan agenda for climate justice: embracing non-state actors 77
Alix Dietzel and Paul G. Harris
8 Social justice and ecological consciousness: pathways to climate justice 91
James S. Mastaler
9 Climate justice in practice: adapting democratic institutions for
environmental citizenship 104
Giuseppe Pellegrini-Masini, Fausto Corvino and Alberto Pirni
10 Climate refugees: realizing justice through existing institutions 118
Justin Donhauser
11 Pre-emptive justice for future generations: reframing climate change
as a ‘humanitarian climate crime’ 131
Selina Rose O’Doherty
12 Climate justice after the Paris Agreement: understanding equity
through nationally determined contributions 143
Claire Swingle
13 Responsibility for climate justice: the role of great powers 158
Sanna Kopra
Index 171
