Advanced Review
Climate justice and the
international regime: before,
during, and after Paris
Chukwumerije Okereke* and Philip Coventry
Edited by Karin Bäckstrand, Domain Editor, and Mike Hulme, Editor-in-Chief
With a focus on key themes and debates, this article aims to illustrate and assess
how the interaction between justice and politics has shaped the international
regime and defined the nature of the international agreement that was signed in
COP21 Paris. The work demonstrates that despite the rise of neo-conservatism
and self-interested power politics, questions of global distributive justice remain
a central aspect of the international politics of climate change. However, while it
is relatively easy to demonstrate that international climate politics is not beyond
the reach of moral contestations, the assessment of exactly how much impact justice has on climate policies and the broader normative structures of the climate
governance regime remains a very difficult task. As the world digests the Paris
Agreement, it is vital that the current state of justice issues within the international climate change regime is comprehensively understood by scholars of climate justice and by academics and practitioners, not least because how these
intractable issues of justice are dealt with (or not) will be a crucial factor in determining the effectiveness of the emerging climate regime. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
How to cite this article:
WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:834–851. doi: 10.1002/wcc.419
INTRODUCTION
C
ontentions over justice have played a significant
role in shaping the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), its Kyoto Protocol,
and the global treaty signed in Paris in December
2015. The UNFCCC has provided a forum for key
justice issues to be discussed alongside international
climate policy.1 However, justice once again proved
to be a controversial issue in the climate change
regime at the recent Paris Conference of the Parties
to the UNFCCC (COP). Perspectives and arguments
about justice are well-established within the
UNFCCC and long-standing divisions remain, most
*Correspondence to: c.okereke@reading.ac.uk
Department of Geography and Environmental science, University
of Reading, Reading, UK
Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article.
834
prominently between developed and developing
countries. There are other dimensions to justice
within the realm of climate change governance and
policy, such as gender, indigenous communities, and
land use rights, but in general these debates play out
within the frame of current and historical north–
south relationships.2
As climate politics has developed over the last
20 years, the contours of these divisions and the language of the debate have regularly shifted. Many reasons and dynamics account for these shifts. First,
governments and other norm entrepreneurs have
gained experience in negotiating with each other
(or not) on the subject. Second, emission profiles and
wealth levels of countries are constantly changing,
with implications for responsibility and contribution.
Third, scientific understanding of climate impact
forecasts is getting more accurate, and the landscape
of the global economy and public opinion has
evolved in various ways across different parts of the
© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Volume 7, November/December 2016
Climate justice and the international regime
world. Moreover, within the international climate
change regime new issues have emerged, such as loss
and damage compensation, and new policy ideas
have been developed, such as intended nationally
determined contributions (INDCs). These have
brought their debates and disagreements, with justice
again forming an essential component and source of
both momentum and controversy.
With a focus on key contentions, this article
aims to illustrate and assess how the interaction
between justice and politics is shaping the international regime and in particular how this influenced
the Paris Agreement. We focus on the UNFCCC
regime deliberately because at present this is the main
forum for global justice concerns to interact with climate policy. However, we recognize increasing
momentum in transnational, sub-state and private
climate governance, which open up new and important dimensions of climate justice across multiple
scales.3,4
Our work here demonstrates that despite the
rise of neo-conservatism and self-interested power
politics, questions of global distributive justice
remain a central aspect of the international politics of
climate change. However, while it is relatively easy
to demonstrate that international climate politics is
not beyond the reach of moral contestations, the
assessment of exactly how much impact justice has
on climate policies and the broader normative structures of the climate governance regime remains a
very difficult task. In fact, with developed countries
appearing to be ducking their commitments while
coopting developing countries into binding emissions
reduction and reporting commitments, there are
grounds to argue that the equity principle of common but differentiated responsibility on which the
regime has long been anchored is now being replaced
with a perverse moral concept that the Lead Author
has described as ‘common but shifted responsibility.’5 As the world digests the Paris Agreement, it is
vital that the current state of justice issues within the
international climate change regime is comprehensively understood by scholars of climate justice and
by academics and practitioners, not least because
how these intractable issues of justice are dealt with
(or not) will be a crucial factor in determining the
effectiveness of the emerging climate regime.
The article is organized into the following three
sections. We begin, unlike the few existing post-Paris
analyses, by explaining how justice issues shaped the
international regime, in terms of its institutional
beginnings and the earliest political struggles. We will
then discuss how the regime responded to and handled questions of justice in the two decades after its
Volume 7, November/December 2016
creation. In the third and largest section, we examine
each of the main policy areas within the international
regime to highlight ongoing controversies relevant to
the development of a new regime and indicate implications of the outcome of the Paris Agreement. We
conclude with some reflection on the state of justice
in the international climate regime.
HOW HAS JUSTICE SHAPED
THE PREEXISTING REGIME?
Justice has been a consistent theme of debate and
advocacy throughout the development of the international climate change regime from its origin in the
early 1990s.2,6,7 Without a doubt, the influence of
justice and equity are critical when seeking to understand how the international climate regime has developed, its functions and its key policy outputs.
However, the theme of justice encompasses a kaleidoscope of perspectives and interpretations, making
its impact fluid and complex. As observed, both justice concerns and impact are entangled with other
factors shaping the climate regime, such as science,
power and economic interests.8,9
A scientific theory about climate change had
existed since the late 19th century, but scientific consensus about the significance of the issue did not permeate the political realm until the 1980s. As more
data became available and computing power allowed
more accurate modelling of the implications of climate change, the message from the scientific community became clearer and stronger. More greenhouse
gases were identified, and the extent of the problem
and the role of anthropogenic emissions could not be
ignored.10
As soon as climate change became a political
issue, national positions demonstrated a notable distinction between rich, industrialized countries and
poor, developing countries, reflecting a principle of
differentiation that had been evolving since the
1970s in successive international environmental treaties. For example, calls for international climate justice, north–south equity, and exemplary leadership
from developed countries are replete in the statements released after the first set of international conferences on climate change such as Villach
Conference in 1985, and the Noordwijk Climate
Declaration in 1989.11
In 1988 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the
World Meteorological Organization (WMO), creating a global focus for climate change science and
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formally linking science with intergovernmental politics. Reflecting the widespread sentiment on the need
for north–south equity. The IPCC’s first report in
1990 identified the ‘specific responsibilities’ of industrialized countries, noting that domestic measures
were required because ‘a major part of emissions
affecting the atmosphere at present originates in
industrialized countries where the scope for change is
greatest.’ The report further stressed that industrialized countries should ‘cooperate with developing
countries in international action, without standing in
the way of the latter’s development,’ including the
provision of finance and technology.12
The case for different accountability and obligations set out in the IPCC’s first report was crucial
in setting the stage for justice to remain central to the
international regime, because it provided the basis
and legitimacy for expressing justice arguments in
the language and data of science. This was particularly significant because the IPCC had been viewed,
at least in some quarters, as a contrivance by some
Western governments to depoliticize climate change
by presenting it as a purely scientific matter.13 In also
pointing out that ‘emissions from developing countries are growing and may need to grow in order to
meet their development requirements,’ the IPCC
drew attention to the considerable challenge of reducing overall emissions while allowing developing
countries to industrialize. This dilemma has, to this
date, defined the core of international climate
negotiations.
As would be expected, developing countries
seized on the points made by the IPCC to press their
case for culpability and historical responsibility
against the rich countries in the negotiations for the
development of the international regime, which took
place between 1990 and 1992 under the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) established by
the United General Assembly. However, beginning
controversy that continues today, rich countries also
appealed to justice but in a bid to counter perspectives that would obligate them to greater leadership
and responsibility.14,15
Scholars16–18 have catalogued the various ways
in which contestations for justice shaped the design
and evolution of the climate regime. First, it is noted
that early agitations for procedural justice by developing countries resulted in the climate regime being
brought within the remit of the UN General Assembly. Developing countries felt that the one-countryone-vote system adopted in the UN would help
mitigate their inability to participate on an equal
footing with developed countries in the relatively
narrow, technical realm of the IPCC. Meanwhile
836
industrialized nations preferred the governance to
remain within a more technical organization such as
the IPCC.10
Second, concern for justice was central in shaping the objective of the UNFCCC, with developing
countries keen to highlight the close links between
climate change, food security and sustainable economic development.19 Okereke argues that developing countries, cognisant of the wide-ranging
economic implications of climate change, saw governance negotiations as an opportunity to redress the
injustices inherent in the prevailing global economic
system.18
Third, concerns for justice resulted in several
equity principles and provisions being included in the
UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol. Key equity terms
include the ‘common concern for mankind,’ ‘common but differentiated responsibility,’ ‘per capita
emissions,’ and ‘historical responsibility’ among
others, while notable equity-based provisions include
differentiation between countries with respect to
emissions reduction obligations, commitment to
north–south financial and technology transfers, and
acknowledgment of the special need of vulnerable
countries.
The foregoing is not of course to suggest homogeneity of views within developed and developing
country groups. Even as the climate regime was being
created, multiple perspectives were evident within
and between developed and developing countries.
For example, vulnerable small island states sought
urgent action to curb emissions, stressing that climate
change was a common concern of mankind, while
oil-producing nations were wary of global emissions
reduction targets and regularly highlighted that justice required a respect for sovereignty and allowing
developing countries unfettered access to resources
they desperately need to achieve national economic
development. Furthermore, large developing countries such as China and India focused on their rights
to develop (and increase emissions accordingly),10
while climate-vulnerable countries emphasized their
rights to survival and the need for sharp global emissions reduction this entailed.15 Within developed
countries there were also divisions, with some Nordic
countries expressing support for north–south financial transfer and poor countries’ right to development, while others, such as the United States, were
deeply skeptical of the notion of ‘development rights’
and preferred to promote the market as the main
source for any international resource distribution.
It is important to note that these arguments and
divisions do not merely reflect individual countries’
pragmatic assessments of their respective national
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Advanced Review
Climate justice and the international regime
circumstances, but also the multiplicity of philosophical perspectives on what global climate justice entails
and how it can be achieved in practice. Perspectives
have proliferated in wider academic and advocacy
communities as scholars theorize how to apply these
philosophical perspectives and achieve justice in the
international climate regime.13,20
HOW THE UNFCCC HAS
RESPONDED TO QUESTIONS
OF JUSTICE
Extant literature on the ethical dimensions of the
global climate regime suggests that the UNFCCC and
its Kyoto Protocol have struggled to address satisfactorily the multiple questions with which they are confronted.15,21,22 While ambitious and lofty in its
admission of global justice principles, the UNFCCC
signed in 1992 did not actually contain specific policies or emission reduction targets and so offered no
real test of the principles it contained.
Signed in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was the first
real major attempt to address climate change. It contained the first global emissions reduction obligations
and was intended to be the first step in the process of
curbing global emissions through multilateral governance.23 The Protocol made a bold attempt to carry
through the principle of differentiation established in
the Convention by legally obligating only industrialized countries to quantified emission reduction targets. However, implementing the Protocol proved
politically divisive and became a focal point for
developed and developing countries alike to position
their arguments about fairness and equity.13 The
United States was swift in its rejection of the Protocol, arguing that it was unfair to exempt rapidly
developing countries like China and India from emission reduction obligations. The US argued that fairness required a focus more on current and future
emissions rather than on historical pollution, some of
which took place before the full consequences of the
problem were known. Moreover, on the grounds of
pragmatism they argued it would be pointless for the
West to reduce emissions while allowing untrammelled carbon pollution from some of the world’s
highest emitters located in the developing world. The
US rejection of the Protocol contributed to the widespread perception that the climate change regime
exists to allocate economic burdens and essentially
penalize economically successful countries.
In 1992, Parties established equity as a cornerstone of the regime by embedding differentiation in
the UNFCCC treaty in the form of the common but
Volume 7, November/December 2016
differentiated responsibility principle (CBDR).19
However, the interpretation and implementation of
CBDR have proven to be major sources of ongoing
disagreements in the evolution of the climate change
regime. In general, developing countries have tended
to emphasize the ‘differentiated responsibility’ part of
the CBDR and in doing so demanded not only
exemption from tough obligations, but also bold
leadership by developed countries and substantial
financial and technical assistance. Developed countries have tended to place more weight on the ‘common’ aspect of CBDR, and consequently demanded
that effective action on climate change requires concerted effort and sacrifice from all parties. Furthermore, developed countries often reject the charge of
climate change culpability, preferring that calls for
leadership and assisting developing countries should
instead be justified on the grounds of their superior
economic and technological capabilities. The result is
that almost all references to CBDR in UNFCCC texts
since the Copenhagen summit are now styled as common but differentiated responsibility and respective
capabilities (CBDR+RC) (emphasis ours).
Expectedly, redistributive funding has been a
key focus of justice controversies within the regime,
with disagreements spanning aspects such as how
much funding is appropriate or necessary, which specific goals to prioritize, the criteria for disbursement,
and how the overall targets should be divided
between different countries. Here again, the regime
has proven very dynamic in rhetoric but far less successful in implementation. On the one hand, developing countries have regularly lamented the lack of
adequate, predictable and long-term climate finance.
They also accuse developed countries of reneging on
their promises and justice responsibilities. Developed
countries, however, insist they are doing their best in
very tough economic conditions and express concern
that some developing countries are attempting to use
climate change as an excuse to get developed countries to fund their national economic development.
Available figures24 reveal a wide disparity
between pledges of almost $14bn and the less than
$4bn actually transferred into the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Green Climate Fund
(GCF), the two primary climate funds. Planned
approvals are lower still at just over $2bn, and
money spent is a fraction of the money received,
let alone the pledges. While the process of planning
and executing projects can be admittedly complex,
these figures reveal a huge gap between rhetoric,
pledges and action with regard to climate equity in
the UNFCCC, and help explain why many feel that
global justice obligations have regularly been
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trounced by hard economic and power politics
rooted in the anarchic nature of the international
system.
Another battleground for justice disputes in the
regime has concerned what should be the primary
policy tool for stimulating climate change action at
national and international levels. Despite agitations
from several quarters, especially developing countries, the UNFCCC has at the behest of capitalist
countries, especially the United States, more or less
enthroned market-based mechanisms such as the
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and other
tools like payments for ecosystem services and carbon trading schemes as the main vehicle for climate
action and north–south financial redistribution.
A key argument from proponents is that the
market mechanism offers a flexible and efficient
means to reduce emissions within countries and
across the world.25,26 However, policy areas such as
REDD+ that engage with market mechanisms involve
numerous complex issues of local participation,
human rights and indigenous groups, although the
conversation about design and implementation
remains state-centric. Critics argue that communities
are often displaced or excluded from the payments as
a result of implementation,27 and schemes can reinforce existing social inequalities and power imbalances, thereby having a detrimental impact on local
justice issues even if local communities do receive
some compensation.28–30 Phelps, Friess, and Webb,31
for example, suggest that by changing the value of
forest land, the CDM mechanism has exposed divisions between forest communities and national governments that has extended into the UNFCCC
forum. Schroeder32 argues that national governments
are liable to favor the rights of elites over marginalized communities, a significant hurdle for achieving
climate justice in the international regime.
It is widely recognized that for developing
countries, increased capacity and access to clean technology are key to designing and implementing lowcarbon development paths. However, despite
repeated emphasis in different parts of the agreement,
capacity building and technology transfer remain
underdeveloped aspects of the international climate
change regime, overshadowed by mitigation and
without a strong institutional base within the
regime’s structure.
Lastly, although the instrumental value of
procedural justice is clear, in addition to its moral
significance,33the regime has also struggled to cope
with the demand for greater procedural justice and participation from developing countries and non-nationstate actors.34,35 While the one-country-one-vote
838
structure remains intact, the fact that decisions within
the UNFCCC continue to require consensus has
afforded more powerful countries the leeway to
impose their will through a combination of highhanded and tactful diplomacy.23,36 At the same time,
the angst that followed the lack of or perceived lack
of procedural justice in the Copenhagen COP
resulted in a renewed attention to the need for inclusiveness in the search for a more comprehensive
regime that will replace the Kyoto Protocol from
2020, when the second commitment period comes to
an end. However, the emerging regime that saw a
new global agreement reached in Paris in 2015
remains dogged by a widely acknowledged lack of
fair and effective participation by developing countries and non-nation-state actors.
JUSTICE IN THE EMERGING REGIME
The road to a new comprehensive climate change
treaty was formalized at the Durban COP in 2011
when all parties agreed to work toward signing a
treaty in 2015, by means of the Ad Hoc Working
Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action
(ADP). Previous attempts to agree a global framework, in Copenhagen in 2009, failed woefully primarily because of clashes between developed and
developing countries about how to handle difficult
questions of justice in the post-Kyoto agreement. The
United States had categorically rejected any agreement that did not place comparable obligations on
China.37 This position was consistent with their longstanding view that global climate equity required
symmetrical action from a wider group of countries
but was hardened by the rapidly changing geopolitical and emissions landscapes. The EU determined
they could not take on the burden of climate change
action without the involvement of the United States,
as doing so would damage their global economic
competitiveness. Moreover, China, with the backing
of many developing countries, was insistent that the
fundamental principle of equity and differentiation
enshrined in Kyoto needed to be carried forward to
any new agreement.
Equity and CBDR are not mentioned explicitly
in the text of the Durban agreement because developed countries insisted that CBDR must be qualified
in light of ‘contemporary economic realities.’ In fact
Todd Stern, the lead United States negotiator in Durban, was reported to have said: ‘If equity’s in, we’re
out.’38 Rajamani39 has argued that this suggests differentiation between countries, which, she says,
reached a ‘high-water mark’ in 1997 with the Kyoto
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Advanced Review
Climate justice and the international regime
Protocol, is now ‘on the wane.’ As it turns out, how
to address differentiation was arguably one of the
most contentious issues during Paris COP in 2015 as
parties struggled to balance between creating an
ambitious regime while recognizing historical and
current responsibilities for climate change. This is
hardly surprising because as many scholars noted,
although equity is not mentioned explicitly in the text
of the Durban Agreement, the treaty’s commitment
to the principles of the UNFCCC implies an affirmation of the centrality of the principle of equity (in the
form of CBDR+RC) as the cornerstone of the international climate regime.40 The Lima Call for Climate
Action (agreed at COP20) reaffirmed that a 2015
treaty must be based on principles of equity and
CBDR+RC, but all options for implementing differentiation remained on the table at UN meetings leading up to the Paris COP.41
Following the signing of the Durban Agreement, which committed both developed and developing country Parties to ambitious action, nearly all the
key policy discussions leading up to the Paris COP21
focused on how to design a comprehensive international regime that is based on voluntary, nationally
determined emissions reduction commitments. More
or less explicit in these discussions were the justice
implications of national pledges, policies and bilateral funding arrangements. These INDCs, of which
161 were declared by 188 countries before Paris,
now represent the foundational thrust of the new climate regime and a feature that mostly clearly sets it
apart from the more ‘top–down’ Kyoto Protocol,
where countries were assigned obligations based on a
globally agreed emissions reduction target. Analysis
of climate justice within the regime must therefore
engage with the equity implications of this new voluntarist climate governance framework and how the
contributions deliver ambitious and fair climate
action in the context of global sustainable
development.
Just as the discussion develops about how to
effectively address equity in the next phase of the climate change regime, there are increasing calls to
overhaul the frame through which climate change
action should be viewed. Traditionally seen as a distribution of unwanted economic burdens, a view
reinforced by the actions of developed states such as
the USA, numerous voices are now calling for a language and attitude of opportunity for green economy
transition to prevail.42 Also prevalent in discourse is
the capabilities approach, which encapsulates the
economic, social and personal capabilities necessary
to pursue a decent livelihood and realize human
rights. It is argued that this approach can help
Volume 7, November/December 2016
policymakers understand the implications of climate
change and the potential impacts, both positive and
negative, of policies they create.43 There is also a
growing agitation to link climate change governance
more firmly and meaningfully with wider objectives
of sustainable development, poverty reduction and
tackling global inequality.
Mitigation
Mitigating the effects of climate change by reducing
greenhouse gas emissions is one of the core pillars of
the climate change regime, but a just global climate
change mitigation target and how to share it equitably remain controversial. A maximum 2 C global
mean temperature rise by 2100 was adopted as a target at the Cancun COP in 2010, but vulnerable
groups continued to highlight the potential injustice
of selecting a target that still involves severe harm on
particularly vulnerable communities. Island states
and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have drawn
attention to this potential injustice with their slogan
‘1.5 to Stay Alive,’ and their representatives are vocal
within the climate change regime, often referring to
the devastating human impact on their populations
should temperature rise exceed the 1.5 C
threshold.44
The Paris Agreement includes an aim of ‘holding the increase in the global average temperature to
well below 2 C above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to
1.5 C.’45 Some have considered the inclusion of this
target as a triumph of justice. However, a closer look
reveals that the moral implications of a 1.5 C target
are complex. First, it is more or less clear that the
probability of meeting this target limit is extremely
low. It has been widely reported that the aggregated
INDC mitigation commitments, if fully implemented,
still commit the planet to warming of between 2.7
and 3.7 C.46 It is therefore arguable that the 1.5 C
target is deceptive, inspires a sense of false hope and
runs the risk of robbing the Paris Agreement of scientific (and ultimately public and political) credibility.
A counter argument might be that the 1.5 C target
can serve a useful moral purpose of motivating and
inspiring the most ambitious action possible, even if
it is evident from the outset that the target might not
be attained.
Second, a 1.5 C target entails a significantly
reduced global carbon space, which could in turn
jeopardize the development aspirations of some
developing countries. This sentiment was evident in
the opposition by the Arab Group and to a lesser
extent India to the inclusion of the 1.5 C target in
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draft texts during the Paris negotiations.47 Third, the
‘just transition’ scholarship has catalogued a range of
local and national social justice and human rights
implications that might be associated with aggressive
decarbonization in the pursuit of limiting warming to
1.5 C. However, the literature by no means suggests
that injustice and human rights abuses are inevitable
under these scenarios.48–50 In fact, many scholars
have argued that the lack of ambitious action portends far greater injustice and human rights abuse for
vulnerable countries and communities than aggressive greenhouse gas reduction measures.51,52 The
Paris Agreement contains reference that Parties
should respect their obligations to human rights
when taking action to address climate change, suggesting a recognition of this range of views. One distinct possibility is that the reference to human rights
in the Agreement could provide useful ammunition
to forest-dependent and oil bearing communities that
might wish to challenge climate policies and block oil
exploration, respectively.
Realistically, however, the immediate climate
justice problem with the Paris Agreement is not about
the moral implications of pursing 1.5 C but the huge
ambition gap that remains. Texts in earlier drafts,
which talk about a peaking of global greenhouse gas
emissions in 2030 and achieving zero emissions by
2060 to 2080, were all deleted in the final Agreement,
with Parties merely agreeing to reach a global peaking
‘as soon as possible.’45 In the end, the Paris Agreement sets no long-term global mitigation timeline,
leaving important questions unanswered about the
way mitigation will proceed over the coming decades
and whether mitigation will be sufficient, let alone
equitable. Relatedly, the Paris Agreement offers precious little about the means of actually keeping emissions below relevant atmospheric concentrations.
Only once is the phrase ‘renewable energy’ used, in
connection with Africa, and virtually no mention is
made of coal, oil, fossil fuel subsidies, carbon tax or
the need to reign in vested corporate interests. The
Agreement, however, recognizes the important role of
sustainable lifestyles and sustainable patterns of consumption and production in addressing climate
change, ‘with developed countries taking the lead.’45
In June 2015, the G7 countries made a public commitment to decarbonizing their economies by 2100
and acknowledged that much of the effort will need
to be undertaken by 2050.53 However, their statement did not contain any concrete plans or schedules,
and the Paris COP did not attempt to make any link
with this historic commitment.
Before and during Paris, the overwhelming
focus of Parties, especially developed countries with
840
regards to mitigation, was on the need for ‘widest
possible participation by all countries,’ or put differently, how to nuance the more or less binary division
between developed and developing countries in the
preexisting regime. Accordingly, there was plenty of
debate about exactly what ‘participation’ means in
this context. A cursory examination reveals multiple
and often conflicting interpretations linked to differing economic positions and philosophical perspectives. Developed countries have tended to interpret
widest possible participation as meaning that as
many countries as possible, including those in the
developing world, should take on quantified emission
reduction obligations comparable in both form and
substance.39 Developing countries, meanwhile, tend
to interpret participation in a more relaxed way, suggesting that it includes all efforts to respond to climate change including adaptation and sustainable
development. Furthermore, invoking relevant provisions in the original UNFCCC convention (e.g., Article 4.1), developing countries stress that adequate
support from industrialized countries in the form of
finance, technology, and capacity building remain
essential preconditions for their action on climate
change.
The Paris Agreement provides that all parties
will undertake and communicate ambitious efforts to
achieve a long-term temperature goal including the
global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions. This and
several other requirements for emissions measurement, national planning, reporting and transparency
place a huge burden on many developing countries,
especially in the context of vague wordings on the
support that will be provided to help developing
countries undertake action. However, the Agreement
does grant that peaking will take longer for developing countries and the special situation of the LDCs
should be recognized. Moreover, the Agreement
stresses in many places that the global response to climate change needs to happen in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate
poverty.45
These provisions are in line with a key part of
the practical aspect of climate justice, which is ensuring the ability of developing countries to develop and
industrialize is not compromised by restrictions
placed on them by climate policy. A notion of equitable access to sustainable development (EASD) had
gained some traction within the international regime
as a framework in which to address the moral dimensions
of
climate
change
and
encourage
collaboration,54 but this was not picked up with any
real force in the Paris Agreement. The treaty, however, does invoke the Sustainable Development Goals
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Climate justice and the international regime
(SDGs), which replaced the Millennium Development
Goals in 2015, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda
of the third International Conference on Financing
for Development. Fighting climate change and using
natural resources sustainably are core to the SDGs
and sit alongside other aims such as ending poverty,
securing education and health services, and reducing
inequality.55 However, other than these references
the Agreement makes very limited, if any, attempt to
link the climate regime to the wider global effort to
tackle poverty, address global inequality, and engender sustainable development.
Many authors, notably Simon Caney, have
challenged the institutional isolation of climate
change policy within the international regime, instead
advocating an ‘integrationist’ approach that considers climate change ‘in light of a general account of
global justice.’56 By advocating a focus on meeting
the basic needs of all persons, Caney suggests a basis
for designing climate policy and determining a fair
distribution of emissions, and provides a theoretical
perspective that echoes calls from developing countries that climate change is inherently tied to other
challenges such as poverty and health. Since development is a key issue for nations within the climate
regime, as well as outside it, a more coordinated
approach may prove essential if the more voluntary
nature of the regime and the Paris Agreement is not
to lead to continued failure, or indeed greater burden
on developing countries who have been more or less
coopted into ambitious emissions reduction
commitments.
Intended Nationally Determined
Contributions
A more voluntary approach to national commitments
has emerged as the key approach for future global
action on climate change, reflecting determined opposition by powerful countries to an extension of a
Kyoto Protocol-type agreement with its emphasis on
top–down mandatory obligations. The pledge-andreview formula is based on INDCs, where each country makes a statement detailing what climate action it
intends to implement over a given period of time. It
started to become evident that a pledge and review
approach would replace the Kyoto Protocol-style
obligations when the Copenhagen COP failed to produce a global deal but proceeded to ‘take note’ of the
patchwork of national commitments and contributions that were announced during and in the run up
to the summit. Subsequently, COP 19 in Warsaw in
2013 included a decision inviting parties ‘to initiate
or intensify domestic preparations for their INDCs,
Volume 7, November/December 2016
without prejudice to the legal nature of the contributions, in the context of adopting a protocol, another
legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal
force under the Convention applicable to all
Parties.’57
This indistinct beginning highlights a key problem with a voluntary approach to climate change
action: if each Party can determine what goes into
their contribution, there is no guarantee that any or
all will contain commitments that are equitable,
ambitious and legally binding.58 Despite consuming
large amounts of negotiating time, no greater clarity
on design, methodology or baselines was achieved in
subsequent UN meetings (e.g. the 2014 COP in Lima,
SBSTA 42 in Bonn in June 2015) and eventually in
the Paris Agreement itself. Parties are encouraged to
explain the equitability of their contributions but this
is not mandatory, and including an explanation will
do nothing to ensure all the various INDCs tie
together into a cohesive whole and create a fair and
equitable basis for the emerging regime.59
Proponents of the pledge and review system are
usually quick to criticize the Kyoto Protocol for being
complex and ineffective.60 However, it is not exactly
clear how the patchwork of intended contributions
represents a simplification of the climate regime and
it is even less clear how to monitor progress on ambition and fairness in the context of such a bewildering
cacophony of pledges. Differing approaches to distributing emissions reduction targets amongst developed and developing countries have been noted in
contributions from the USA and China61 and underreporting of coal consumption—up to 17% in the
case of China—was revealed just before COP21.62
The lack of a framework through which to
assess INDCs, both in terms of their ambition and
their equity credentials, means there is nothing to
prevent these differences becoming the source of
intense disagreement during discussions by the Ad
Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement, which
has been tasked with developing further guidance on
features of the INDCs. Similarly, fractious debates
about fairness can be expected in planned discussions
to elaborate the scope and modalities for the global
‘stocktake,’ which should assess the collective progress toward achieving the ultimate objective of the
Agreement, including the overall effect of the INDCs,
consideration of long term strategies, the state of
adaptation efforts, and support for developing
countries.
Scholarly attention must turn to the justice
implications of the institutionalization of a culture of
voluntary contributions. While the role of multilateral arrangements may be enhanced because a central
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body is required to monitor INDCs and ensure they
meet relevant criteria, it appears unlikely the
UNFCCC can perform this function in the absence of
an agreed basis for judging whether contributions are
fair and equitable in design, or indeed sufficient to
meet agreed warming limits. At the same time, it may
be that voluntary contributions allow developing
countries to resist pressure to lower their expectations of differentiation, and articulate more strongly
and clearly what climate justice entails within the
heart of the governance regime. It could be argued
that the INDCs have the virtue of allowing developing countries to determine their contributions without having a target imposed on them by the more
powerful countries, as might have been the case
under a target-based agreement. However, such an
argument would be difficult to sustain given that
developing countries are not formulating their contributions in isolation. The process remains part of the
wider negotiation sphere and has consequently
involved the bargaining and pressure from developed
countries that one would expect in this level of international relations. As a result, agreeing the new voluntary regime has involved some developing
countries signing up to undertake ambitious climate
action without firm promises of adequate support.
The full extent and implications of such pressure and
the implications of ‘ambition’ rhetoric should be seen
as an important aspect of analyzing the voluntary
regime.
Lessons from other international governance
regimes indicate that incorporating equity in a concrete and multidimensional manner is an essential
component of political and policy success.63 However, an Equity Reference Framework (ERF)58 to
guide the development of the 2015 regime, which
uses factors such as historical responsibility, current
capabilities and an assessment of development needs
to gauge what a fair contribution entails, did not
gain traction in the negotiations preceding Paris.
Klinsky et al.43 have argued that a capabilities
approach with reference to securing human rights
can facilitate the realization of the ‘respective capabilities’ element of the CBDR+RC principle, by providing a means to judge what expectations are
appropriate for different countries, and what kinds
and levels of support they should receive. Support is
necessary from a practical perspective since many
countries are limited in the technical and financial
resources they can apply to INDC preparation.
Developing countries continue to call for more support, but this is but one aspect of the broader support and redistribution measures within the
international regime, all of which remain contested.
842
Research for UNFCCC and UNDP earlier in 2015
showed that more than a quarter of countries were
still awaiting international support with their
INDCs.64
The challenges of support and consistency are
encapsulated in the debate about including adaptation in INDCs. In advance of Paris, some developing
countries were increasingly in favor of doing so,65
and adaptation has been an important part of a
wider debate about the scope of INDCs. NGOs have
argued developed countries should include adaptation support beyond their borders when producing
their INDCs,66 but developed countries including
Canada and the United States have clearly stated they
consider adaptation outside the remit of INDCs.67 At
the same time, including adaptation potentially
requires greater time and resources, which are in
short supply for the most vulnerable countries. At
Lima in 2014, parties were simply invited to ‘consider including an adaptation component in their
INDCs,’68 but in Paris adaptation was acknowledged
as a legitimate component of INDCs.
Adaptation
Despite officially being given the same priority within
the UNFCCC process,69 adaptation has received significantly less attention than mitigation, which has
taken most of the focus in global discussions about
climate change justice. This is particularly problematic for many low income countries that contribute
little to climate change, because adaptation is the
highest priority when considering duties to their citizens.70 In contrast with the global level, at the
national and regional level in the Global South,
adaptation has received the majority of lobbying and
investment attention. This is principally because, in
terms of responding to climate change, adaptation
has been viewed as the key link between climate
change, risk, poverty, and development.71 However,
it is arguable that this view was also shaped by the
perspective that positioning mitigation as the responsibility of developed nations would reinforce appropriate liability for climate change. More recently,
however, scholars have stressed that an integrative
approach that combines adaptation and mitigation
is a key requirement for an optimum climate
solution.69
Moellendorf72 has reinforced the moral basis
for an integrative approach, by arguing that when
considering the realization of climate justice it is prudent to remember that mitigation and adaptation are
both moral obligations within a response to climate
change. Mitigation involves directly targeting the
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Climate justice and the international regime
ultimate cause of climate change, which is necessary
because climate change has the potential to bring
about effects that cannot be alleviated through adaptation. Adaptation is also a moral necessity because
the impacts of climate change are already apparent
and will continue to worsen as current and future
emissions affect the climate further.73 Furthermore,
adaptation is important for intergenerational justice,
since the less mitigation that is done now, the greater
the effects of climate change will be and the more
adaptation will be required.70
In Paris, adaptation received mixed attention.
On the one hand, developing countries were successful in ensuring that adaptation planning and indications of funding needs can be legitimately included in
their INDCs, despite initial resistance from developed
countries who wanted the INDCs to be focused on
mitigation. In addition, a specific goal for adaptation
was included in the Paris Agreement, and linked to
the mitigation target.74 Vulnerable groups like the
LDCs, AOSIS and African countries had demanded
such a goal, with a key aim of ensuring adaptation is
considered as a global responsibility within the international regime. This is in line with the Bali Action
Plan, adopted within the UNFCCC in 2007, which
gave mitigation and adaptation equal status within
the evolving climate regime.69 However, no measurement mechanism was included in the Paris Agreement and texts explicitly linking aggregate mitigation
levels and support from developed countries for
adaptation were deleted in the final Agreement.
Instead, however, ‘cycles of action’ are intended to
increase ambition and effort on adaptation as the
regime moves forward. Moreover, while allowing
flexibility for the different circumstances and
resources of different countries, the Paris Agreement
does little to ensure funding requirements will be met
or that vulnerable countries will actually be able to
design and implement measures to meet their adaptation needs.
Within the international regime, National
Adaptation Plans (NAPs) are the means by which
countries will articulate their adaptation needs and
planning over the medium- and long-term. So far this
process has been focused on LDCs, but there has
been no firm decision about whether this should be
extended to other countries. Funding for creating
NAPs is also a key outstanding issue, and ties in with
similar uncertainty about INDCs. In advance of the
Paris COP21, the African Group criticized the ‘inadequate funds and lack of clear guidance on how developing countries can access direct financial support
for formulating and implementing NAPs.’75 This criticism contrasted with official confirmation that
Volume 7, November/December 2016
funding is available from the GCF to assist with
NAPs, suggesting a misalignment of the governance
regime and the nations subject to it. If the regime
does not successfully meet the needs of the most vulnerable countries, these failures will contribute to the
ongoing marginalization of the poorest developing
countries within the regime and restrict their empowerment to participate fully.
Moellendorf72 has recently restated the strong
moral basis to the claim developing nations have to
be relieved of the burden of adapting to climate
change, rooted in their relative poverty and relatively
small contribution to the problem. Since development
is a critical means of reducing vulnerability, this
claim can take the form of development resources
and is consequently linked directly to EASD and the
concept of ‘carbon space.’ NAPs are also linked
strongly to national development strategies. Tracking
vulnerability can also be a practical means to target
spending on adaptation while at the same time providing a conceptual basis for the obligations developed states have toward developing states. Climate
justice cannot be achieved simply by raising sufficient
financial commitments, however, and the NGO community has pointed out the need to strive for
community-specific adaptation measures that place
human rights and indigenous knowledge at their center.76 A key challenge is ensuring the post-2015 international
regime
adequately
recognizes
the
importance of adaptation and can ensure adaptation
plans are implemented in a way that promotes justice
at the local level as well as the global level.
Finance
While headline figures and financial pledges are not
sufficient to address climate change without considering what happens with the money, securing the commitments and organizing the proportions involved in
provision and distribution of finance are vital to
addressing climate change and realizing climate justice. Flows of finance are also a public indicator necessary to increase confidence that developed
countries will meet their emissions commitments.59
Redistributive flows provide a visible and practical
response to the justice claims of vulnerable developing countries that they should not bear an unfair burden of climate change action. In practice, however,
developing countries are diverting more and more of
their already-limited spending to adaptation and risk
reduction because financial flows are not sufficient to
meet their needs. The burdens are not being lifted
from them and as a result other government spending
on health, education and infrastructure is vulnerable
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in the face of the overwhelming urgency and severity
of climate change.76
The Copenhagen COP in 2009 generated
important political momentum in climate finance,
with developed countries pledging a ‘fast-start’ of
$30bn in 2010–2012 and reaching $100bn a year by
2020.77 However, the pledges have not led to a sufficient shift toward increasing and reliable flows of
finance,76 so funding is lagging behind the commitments and the needs of developing countries.69 In
Paris, no new figure for finance was agreed upon,
with commentators criticizing the continued lack of
clarity on how financing will actually be measured
and therefore monitored to ensure developed countries are meeting the headline commitments they
made in Copenhagen and reiterated in Paris.78
The GCF was set up in 2010 as the key means
of administering redistributive financial flows, but
while this mechanism brings to life the principle of
redistributive justice it also captures the disagreement surrounding how to implement CBDR in climate policy. Based on mobilizing voluntary public
and private contributions, with a lack of enforcement capabilities and COP-level oversight, the GCF
has been criticized as moving away from UNFCCC
principles, including CBDR.79 Vanderheiden includes
the GCF’s loose recommendation to operate along
Kyoto Protocol categorization of developed and
developing countries in the failure of the GCF to further CBDR. However, as the regime develops and
constructive participants look for ways to create
more dynamic differentiation between Parties, this
vague framework could prove to allow advantageous flexibility in shaping climate finance. Referring
back to the evolving circumstances of differentiation,
it is notable that countries such as South Korea and
Mexico, which are in the developing country category in the Kyoto Protocol regime, have pledged
contributions to the GCF.76
Agreements to redistribute money or secure
particular amounts will not be sufficient to support
developing countries and achieve recognizable climate justice. The way finance is provided is important, too, since there are already well-established aid
flows from the developed to developing world.
Assurance is necessary that aid will not be diverted
away from existing commitments toward climaterelated funding, thereby reducing the additional burden taken on by developed countries and limiting the
benefits for justice. Preventing the diversion of existing funds is important for enhancing confidence that
the financial mechanisms within the international climate regime are not geared toward the interests of
donor nations.
844
Loss and Damage
Loss and damage refers to the effects of climate
change that countries are not adapted or cannot
adapt to; principles of justice are invoked to claim a
right to compensation when countries experience
such effects but did little to cause climate change.
The IPCC has confirmed that climate change is likely
to breach the limits of adaptation, and many countries have been vocal about the need for a mechanism
within the international regime to administer compensation. From a justice perspective, the claims for
compensation will be narrower than for adaptation,
since it is much more difficult to prove a direct link
between climate change and specific extreme weather
events, as opposed to longer-term trends in weather
and sea-level.72 Discussions in annual COP meetings
from 2010 led to the formulation of a mechanism at
the Warsaw COP19 in 2013, designed to foster
knowledge sharing on risk management, strengthen
cooperation on tools and approaches to addressing
loss and damage, and enhancing financial and technical support.80 Reaching agreement was not straightforward, though, and only achieved after a move by
Australia to postpone discussions on loss and damage until after the 2015 Paris COP prompted a mass
walkout from frustrated developing countries.72 The
Paris Agreement preserves the Warsaw Mechanism,
which had been due to expire in 2016.
Until the Paris COP21, loss and damage had
been kept within the adaptation pillar of the
UNFCCC. More than any other area, loss and damage require a move away from the spirit of aid and
compassion that has characterized the existing climate change regime.81 In Paris, loss and damage was
recognized as a distinct component within the regime
for the first time, adding legitimacy to the claims of
developing countries. However, this was only
achieved alongside specific acknowledgement in the
treaty that it ‘does not involve or provide a basis for
any liability or compensation.’45 This was seen as
essential to ensure the US Congress did not reject the
entire Paris Agreement,82 and follows the track record of developed nations, who throughout the history of the climate change regime have sought
vigorously to deflect issues of blame and liability
raised by the pursuit of compensatory justice. For
example, at Warsaw COP19, the EU’s climate commissioner said: ‘We cannot have a system where we
have automatic compensation when severe events
happen around the world. That is not feasible.’83
The Paris outcome on loss and damage reveals
important boundaries and power-dynamics of the
international regime, and highlights the way domestic
political circumstances in developed countries can
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Climate justice and the international regime
influence the way justice is realized or avoided in the
international regime. Neither developed nor developing countries have prevailed in loss and damage discussions, and the issue remains at the forefront of
justice concerns within the international regime.
Capacity Building
Capacity building refers to increasing nations’ ability
to respond to the challenges they face from climate
change, through both mitigation and adaptation.
Capacity building goes beyond technological and
financial resources. It encompasses knowledge, infrastructure, human resources and other elements, all of
which affect the way a nation is able to use technology and funding in its local responses to climate
change. NGOs and vulnerable countries alike are
vocal about the importance of capacity building
within the overall relationship between developed
and developing countries in responding to climate
change.84,85 CDM projects and payments for ecosystem services models provide numerous examples of
local or community equity being overlooked or given
a low priority by investors, and payments bypassing
the poorest and most vulnerable.27 No matter how
much financial and technological support is made
available, climate justice cannot be achieved if developing countries are unable to make use of these
resources because their capacity to build and implement systems, infrastructure and processes is limited
and powerful local actors can capture the benefits.
Like other aspects of the global response to climate change, capacity building has been overshadowed within the international regime by mitigation
and has often been treated as an afterthought. In
practice, capacity building has suffered from a lack
of sustained, long-term investment as donors lose
interest, developing country governments are unable
to maintain project momentum, and cohesive
enabling institutions do not exist. Some scholars have
suggested that a separate, defined institution is necessary to ensure capacity building receives appropriate
attention and funding, and can maximize the effectiveness of relevant funding.59 Others have described
capacity building as a ‘cross-cutting’ component of
the international regime, which can be effectively
addressed by using existing institutions and
processes.69
There remain no formal targets within the international regime to stimulate capacity building,
despite calls by developing countries.67 At COP21 in
2015, the Paris Committee on Capacity-building was
created, aiming to ‘address gaps and needs, both current and emerging, in implementing capacity-building
Volume 7, November/December 2016
in developing country Parties and further enhancing
capacity-building efforts.’45 While a positive step, the
text is lacking in specific detail about mechanisms
that will deliver practical change to capacity building
efforts. This reinforces how capacity building illustrates the complex multiscalar nature of both governance and justice within the global response to climate
change. It is increasingly understood within the international regime that a global response to climate
change must enable developing countries to participate fully, both in terms of achieving justice and
ensuring the commitments and mechanisms agreed
and funded at the highest level of governance can
actually be implemented.
Identifying practical needs in developing countries remains an important challenge for operationalizing capacity building, although efforts continue at
the UNFCCC level to work with developing countries to identify need86 and implement a framework.87 Importantly, however, it is a key difficulty
within the regime but also a key requirement of realizing climate justice to link top–down policies to the
local context by facilitating local ownership, engagement and understanding, thereby increasing the
potential for successful implementation. Capacity
building is necessary to achieve these objectives, and
in turn achieve justice through adaptation, mitigation, and procedural design. At the same time, capacity building must operate in reverse, with the
international regime and its institutions devoting
greater attention to understanding local level conditions and capabilities when designing policy.88
Technology Transfer
In a similar way to capacity building, technology
transfer is a policy area often given a lower level of
attention than mitigation within the international
regime. However, technology transfer has been given
a place at the center of climate justice, since technology is seen as essential for low-carbon development.
The logic follows that developing country governments with obligations toward their citizens will pursue development and increase their energy generation
using the technology available to them and within
their financial reach. Prominent advocates such as
Mary Robinson assert that if the international regime
is to foster justice rather than impede it, policies must
not penalize developing countries by seeking to prevent fossil fuel-based development.89 Instead, facilitating a low-carbon development path can achieve
the twin aims of development and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Such perspectives link climate
change action with development, reflecting the
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similar prevalence of discussions on trade, capital
flows and economic growth in the international
regimes governing both climate change and
development.90
Technology becomes an instrument of justice,
but one inherently bound up with the existing capitalist hegemonic global structures. Technology transfer is important in revealing the international climate
regime’s place at the heart of these structures.91 Suggestions that technology transfer could be facilitated
by working with famously neoliberal organizations
such as the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) and with the private sector59,89 underline the
confines in which those seeking to act in the interests
of the world’s poor and vulnerable are operating.
Developing countries remain frustrated that the
Technology Mechanism created under the UNFCCC
only provides consultancy and information services
rather than an actual transfer of technology that can
be used for climate action and low-carbon development.92 The agreement in Paris COP21 did little to
alter this, with a focus on innovation and enabling
development of technology, and only passing reference to removing barriers that prevent the transfer of
existing technology to nations where a need for it in
facilitating climate action has been identified.45 The
reluctance of developed countries to encourage action
that goes directly against the core principles of neoliberal capitalism is not surprising, and in this context we must ask whether meaningful north–south
technology transfer can ever possibly be achieved
without disrupting hegemonic global structures.
CAN THE INTERNATIONAL REGIME
ACCOMMODATE CHANGING
NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES,
INCREASING SCIENTIFIC URGENCY,
AND MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES ON
JUSTICE?
This paper has shown that justice remains crucial to
a new multilateral climate treaty as the international
climate change regime begins a new phase after the
Paris COP21 in December 2015. There were some
positive signs in advance of COP21, such as the US
climate envoy acknowledging the necessity of addressing justice, which was a ‘U-turn’ from their infamous threat in Durban to walk away from an
agreement that incorporates equity. Other positive
signs included BASIC nations such as China making
gestures toward announcing ambitious targets.70
However, at the climate talks leading up to Paris discussions remained intractable on transitioning out of
846
fossil fuels, when large developing countries should
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and how much
financial support should be provided by which countries.93 These are familiar themes from the earliest
days of climate change governance and proved to be
central to the COP21 negotiations and outcome.
There are grounds to suggest that the trend
toward voluntary commitments and ‘parallelism’ (the
same or similar commitments by both rich and poor
countries) poses the greatest threat to successful realization of justice in climate change policy. Despite
proposals such as the Equity Reference Framework58
and efforts by scholars and practitioners to explore
various ways of interpreting and embedding widely
shared intuitions of fairness into the climate
regime,94–98 there is little prospect of a robust discussion within the regime about adopting a framework
or an equity assessment mechanism to underpin creation and review of INDCs. While the Paris Agreement includes recognition that it will be implemented
to reflect equity and the CBDR+RC principle, the
only mention of ‘climate justice’ in the text is a short
statement in the preamble section, which notes ‘the
importance for some of the concept of ‘climate
justice,’ when taking action to address climate
change’45 (our emphasis).
While general principles of differentiation have
nominal weight, the complexity of realizing justice
means that with no framework there is little prospect
that voluntary global climate action will be structured in a manner consistent with principles of fairness and justice. The inability of the international
regime to impose or encourage the application of one
or a limited set of justice principles remains a perennial constraint on the regime’s effectiveness and a
challenge when translating justice concerns into practical action.99 Meanwhile, in the midst of the cacophony of perspectives, emissions are increasing as are
negative impacts on vulnerable communities around
the world.
It is evident that the normative architecture of
the global order remains hostile to solidarist conceptions of justice.20 Positive sentiment was encapsulated
in the ‘high ambition coalition’ in Paris, and promises
of cooperation outside the international regime have
given many observers reason to think there is greater
momentum for cooperation. However, the withdrawal of Canada from Kyoto, the debacle of Copenhagen and the stance of many Western countries in
recent negotiations suggest a renewed attack against
even the minimalist notions of climate justice that
were embodied in the preexisting agreement.
It was clear from statements at COP21 in Paris
that powerful nations were shaping the idea of
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Climate justice and the international regime
legitimate differentiation, and seeking to focus on
parity in economic development and their perspective
that justice entails developing countries contributing
more to climate action.100 In reality, this leveling of
expectations has actually entailed reducing emissions
reduction expectations on developed countries while
more burdens are imposed on developing countries
that are already bearing the greatest brunt of climate
change. There is therefore a sense that the moral
tenor of global climate governance has moved away
from the principle of common but differentiated
responsibility toward a perverse moral concept that
Okereke has described as ‘common but shifted
responsibility.’5
An ethical analysis of the climate regime reveals
an abiding strong interconnection between economic
circumstances, geopolitical power and the justice
claims that nations can assert in negotiations. Events
within the climate regime highlight the importance of
questioning the extent to which claims of justice can
ever be truly realized in the context of international
regimes of environmental governance as well as how
much concerns for justice are motivated by other concerns such as relative economic gains or geopolitical
objectives.101 It would appear that the progress made
in entrenching justice at the heart of the climate agreement is now seriously threatened by the recent global
financial crisis, which has served to awaken simmering
egotistical impulses among state actors. Nevertheless,
suggestions that the new pledge and review system has
sidestepped the contentious justice debates that characterize the Kyoto Protocol cannot but be described as
simply naïve and wishful thinking. Our work has
demonstrated the depth and complexity of the present
issues, and the magnitude of the challenge to overcome
widespread disagreement.
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