Climate Policy, Legitimacy and Justice for Equals

Changing climatic conditions demand action in various areas of policy and society. Lifestyles and industrial production need to be changed in a way to produce less new emissions, but also technological intervention in the climate system is needed to stabilize the climate. Adaptation is required to deal with increased climate threats to social and economic conditions, but also inevitable or not avoided climate loss and damage must be handled in an appropriate way. All these challenges call for justice in the distribution of burdens and responsibilities but also entitlements. However, justice is not always possible in climate policy. This paper investigates the basic conditions for justice in the various areas of climate policy and action. It shows under what conditions a distribution of burdens, responsibilities and entitlements can be deemed just and for what reasons deviation of just distributions is appropriate. I show first why in the various areas of climate policy just distributions of burdens, responsibilities and entitlements are not always possible and cannot be defined from a theoretical point of view only. I argue then that to ensure basic equality of standing under such circumstances demands procedural involvement of all those concerned by these distributions in a morally relevant sense. However, for procedural decisions to be legitimate certain conditions of formal and substantial equality need to be secured. It is these conditions that not only define procedural justice in climate policy but also the space for acceptable deviations from climate justice.