The emerging geographies of climate justice

Abstract

Climate justice is a well used concept within the international climate debate yet it has often remained little more than a static ideal. Through an analysis of the work of a loose civil society coalition in India mobilising around climate change justice, this paper argues that we need to be more attentive to the emerging geographies of climate justice, particularly in the global South where climate change provokes questions of uneven development processes as well as environmental concerns. The paper shows how climate justice has been scaled as an international justice issue through public discourses, national policies and civil society engagement in India. I argue that this focus on international climate justice narrows the political space for alternative articulations and claims for climate justice. Whereas climate justice has tended to focus on the nation‐state as the key actor in addressing climate injustice I argue there are multiple entry points to address climate injustices at different scales. To understand what is meant by climate justice beyond the international sphere requires an exploration of the multiple manifestations and scales of climate justice and geographers could offer a critical contribution to an understanding of what national and local climate justice would mean in practice. These ideas are already starting to be operationalised in development programmes and climate finance, and a spatially grounded geographical understanding is crucial to future policy in this area.

Socially Just Triple-Wins? A Framework for Evaluating the Social Justice Implications of Climate Compatible Development

“…Consequently, they overlook how different contexts and cultures shape social justice claims [67]. Drawing on empirical research in India, Fisher [7] demonstrates that multiple identities, development inequalities and diverse experiences with climate impacts and policy outcomes translates into myriad climate justice claims. When analysed across different levels and scales, varied interpretations of social justice and injustice emerge [68].…”

“…However, multi-level, cross-scalar analyses are scarce [72]. The social justice implications of decisions determining the scales at which climate responses are designed and implemented have also been overlooked [7].…”

“…It follows that climate justice should be concerned about the climate but also uneven development processes. However, climate injustices are often conceived as separate from developmental injustices [7].…”

“…Multiple identities, global inequalities and diverse cross-scalar experiences with climate impacts and policy outcomes make it impossible to define a universal standard of distributive justice with regards to CCD. Rather, pluralism-the diversity of priorities and perspectives held by individuals and groups-is ubiquitous, manifesting itself in heterogeneous beliefs about what is to be distributed and how, which differ across governance levels and (spatial and temporal) scales [7].…”

“…This means multiple, diverse cross-scalar social justice claims are ignored, especially those advocated from sub-national levels. While these limitations have been discussed elsewhere (e.g., [7,18]), they have not been engaged with holistically. Frameworks that build on these lessons are absent, which creates a barrier to exploring social justice within the CCD discourse.…”