Towards a Theory of Pure Procedural Climate Justice

Abstract

A challenge for the theorising of climate justice is that even when the agents whose actions are supposed to be regulated are cooperative and act in good faith, they may still disagree about how the burdens and benefits of dealing with climate change should be distributed. This article is a contribution to the formulation of a useful role for normative theorising in light of this bounded nature of climate justice. We outline a theory of pure procedural climate justice; its content, function in relation to international climate diplomacy, and justification. The theory is 'pure' in the sense that it does not rely on an independent criterion of what are just outcomes in negotiations of climate responsibilities. Rather, it specifies procedural fairness norms, such as transparency, reciprocity and participation, which make the process of negotiation fair independently of which account of substantive climate justice happens to be correct. Such procedural fairness norms are justified in part by being expressions of an ideal of a reasonable negotiator, an ideal which itself commands respect. They are also justified as means to an effective coordinated response to dangerous climate change in virtue of their capacity to create trust, predictability and accountability.

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“…According to Adger et al (2006), 'participation of most impacted and vulnerable groups is vital for adaptation planning in all developing countries'. Scholars have recently expanded the conceptualisation of procedural justice to include other norms such as accuracy, transparency, correctability and reciprocity (Brandstedt and Brülde 2019). Others also stress the importance of addressing procedural justice in climate adaptation.…”

Renovating on Unequal Premises: A Normative Framework for a Just Renovation Wave in Swedish Multifamily Housing

“…The principle of procedural fairness could in turn be grounded in the above mentioned fundamental normative theories together with the empirical facts of the situation. However, we will not do that here since we believe that the wider trend in political philosophy of using procedural accounts as a complement to the non-procedural ones when these does not, e.g., give a determinate answer or are in competition with each other in different ways (see, e.g., Nussbaum [122], Brandstedt and Brülde [130], and Herlitz and Sadek [128]) is justified. Using these procedurals accounts in this way should also not be objected to by the proponents of the procedural accounts since this does not impede on the use of any of the reasonable versions of these accounts.…”