Sarah Kenehan

There is a major divide between the work of normative theorists and concrete climate action (or inaction) politics and policies. In this volume, authors tackle the strained relationships between principles of justice and climate politics by responding to real-world climate politics and policies, offering proposals and analyses that take concerns of feasibility seriously, and identifying immediate justice and feasibility concerns with recent proposals for climate action. Contributors look at questions of feasibility as they relate to specific international institutions like the IPCC and UNFCCC, and widely discussed principles of climate justice, including backward-looking principles like polluter pays and forward-looking principles like ability to pay. Others explore the feasibility hurdles and justice concerns that challenge popular mitigation proposals. These international and interdisciplinary contributors re-think the ways the principles of climate justice should be applied, speaking to students, research scholars, activists, and policymakers.

This volume takes up the pressing issues of justice and responsibility that arise at the intersection of food and agricultural systems, environmental degradation, and global climate change. The diverse contributions examine both the various ways that food and agricultural practices contribute to environmental degradation, especially climate change, and the impact that climate change is having and will have on food and agricultural practices. Central questions include: How can the connections between food and agriculture, environmental issues, and climate change best be understood? What are the ethical and political responsibilities of various parties in relation to this nexus of problems? Whose knowledge, concerns, and voices are, and should be, valued in making global climate policy and agricultural and food policy? What are the limitations of existing policies, practices, and theoretical frameworks for understanding and responding to these complex problems?

This collection helps bridge the divide between the work of normative theorists and climate action (or inaction). In this volume, contributors reflect on how we should understand the relationship between theorizing about climate justice, the principles of justice that result, and feasibility constraints on climate action. Some explore the role of theorists or the usefulness of their theories for guiding policymaking and action on climate change, while others discuss concerns with who is establishing what the feasibility constraints are and how they are doing so. Others identify and discuss psychological feasibility constraints on just climate action, or draw important parallels and distinctions between the feasibility constraints that were tackled in order to address the COVID-19 pandemic and those that need to be tackled in order to respond to global climate change. The international and interdisciplinary contributors offer a range of approaches and frameworks, to re-think the ways that concerns of justice should be considered on the policy level, speaking to students, research scholars, activists, and policymakers.

There is a major divide between the work of normative theorists and concrete climate action (or inaction) politics and policies. In this volume, authors tackle the strained relationships between principles of justice and climate politics by responding to real-world climate politics and policies, offering proposals and analyses that take concerns of feasibility seriously, and identifying immediate justice and feasibility concerns with recent proposals for climate action. Contributors look at questions of feasibility as they relate to specific international institutions like the IPCC and UNFCCC, and widely discussed principles of climate justice, including backward-looking principles like polluter pays and forward-looking principles like ability to pay. Others explore the feasibility hurdles and justice concerns that challenge popular mitigation proposals.