Theorising Climate Justice: an Ecological Practice-Dependent Approach

In this paper I will develop a new method for theorising principles of climate justice. Drawing on practice-dependent approaches to justice, this method will be called ‘ecological practice-dependence’. It will consider ecology as a constitutive, active, and vital feature of political practice, thereby improving our methodological resources for interpreting normative claims which are embedded in ecological contexts – such as the demands for climate justice in international climate politics. The types of political practices which have been supposed by practice-dependent theorists to ground principles of justice – like those based on reciprocity (Sangiovanni, 2008), coercion (Nagel, 2005), or culture (Waltzer, 1983) – have been theorised in anthropocentric terms, whereby the material ecological order is relegated to the background against which political life unfolds. But as the climate crisis makes clear, the ecological order is not merely a passive backdrop, but instead an active ‘player’ in the constitution and unfolding of political practice. By developing an ecological practice-dependent account, I seek to remedy this anthropocentric error in two ways. First, I will offer an ontological sketch of ecological practice in international politics, defining it as a growing collective awareness of our relational dependency on ecological systems. This practice contrasts with reciprocal, coercive, and cultural kinds by the types of relationships represented (material/ecological relations rather than purely ‘social’ relations), and agencies represented (diffused through ecological systems), as well as the overall purpose of the practice. Second, I will explain how established methods for drawing-out principles of justice from an interpretation of a practice should change to account for these ontological differences. This includes broadening the justificatory framework beyond moral or legal orders to include ecological orders as well. The result will be a new method for theorising climate justice which takes seriously the ecological realities of political life in the Anthropocene.