Climate justice

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The effects of climate change, which are already noticeable today, often also affect those who have contributed particularly little to global warming
(Image: Somali refugees, -> environmental refugee )
" Climate policy is peace policy - climate justice now!"
"Children want climate justice"

Climate justice is a normative concept and part of environmental justice that regards current anthropogenic climate change as an ethical and political problem rather than just an environmental and technical challenge. The aim of this approach is, among other things, not only to greatly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming , but to distribute them - or their reduction - fairly among all people worldwide. In addition, climate justice should also ensure that the current unequal distribution of the consequences of global warming is balanced out, taking into account the polluter pays principle , whereby climate justice usually assumes that those population groups (mostly in the global south ) who contribute the least to climate change often to suffer most and most unprotected from its consequences.

background

The concept of climate justice partially hides the idea of contraction and convergence , which was developed by the Global Commons Institute in 1995 after various preparatory work . In the German-speaking countries, climate justice was first made known to a broader public in 2007 through the related term “carbon justice”, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared it to be a potential cornerstone of a future global climate protection policy . In doing so, she also took up a demand made by Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai for a fair balance between rich and poor countries. Large parts of Africa, for example, make little contribution to greenhouse gas emissions per capita . The Heinrich Böll Foundation has with the concept of Greenhouse Development Rights submitted a related climate justice approach.

It would be climate- friendly if, on the emissions side, each person had a carbon budget of one to two tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. The extent to which the historical emissions of the industrialized countries must and should be taken into account in this calculation is controversial. A climate-friendly emissions policy would (theoretically) allow many developing countries to increase their greenhouse gas emissions, in some cases considerably. For the main cause of climate change, the industrialized nations, this would mean a reduction of up to 95 percent.

Such an approach was discussed at the Symposium Global Sustainability - A Nobel Cause from October 8-10, 2007 in Potsdam. In the Potsdam Memorandum drawn up there, a development towards the same per capita emission rights is called for, combined with a simultaneous reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions. According to the memorandum, “carbon justice” is one of eight key elements to stabilize the global climate.

Also, environmental ethicists as Felix Ekardt and air philosophers like Darrel Moellendorf deal with climate justice. Some represent a per capita redistribution of income (eco bonus or climate dividend , also lump sum bonus payments , green check or fee and dividend ) from emission certificates, eco taxes or a carbon tax , as is the case with the Incentive taxes are already being implemented in Switzerland on a small scale.

International climate policy

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , adopted in 1992, lists the following as the first principle that should apply on the way to the goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions at a safe level:

"The contracting parties should protect the climate system for the benefit of current and future generations on the basis of equity and in accordance with their shared but different responsibilities and their respective capabilities."

- Framework Convention on Climate Change, Art. 3, 1.

Accordingly, developed countries pledged to make “fair and equitable contributions” to achieve this goal. With regard to funding mechanisms , the contracting states established a principle of procedural justice , namely that the mechanisms should be "established on the basis of fair and balanced representation of all contracting parties with a transparent governance structure".

In its preamble, the Paris Agreement expressly includes the term “climate justice” in its consideration for the first time. In essence, it is about a fair sharing of the burdens of emission reductions and the consequences of global warming, i.e. questions of distributive and corrective justice . States parties recognize the importance of managing losses and damage , but the Convention does not contain specific agreement on corrective action. With regard to the financing of climate protection and adaptation in developing countries, the developed countries reaffirm that they want to provide financial resources for this purpose.

Before the UN Climate Change Conference in Warsaw , Angela Merkel repeated her appeal for a fair treaty solution in climate policy on May 6, 2013 at the fourth Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin:

“I come back to the question of justice. We know it's about the two-degree goal . At some point we will also know how many CO 2 emissions this means in relation to a specific year. We basically know that in the long term, if we look at the world's population, every inhabitant of this earth is likely to emit around two tons of CO 2. "

An allied nation is India . India accepted such a participatory policy as a fair approach. However, Merkel admitted, the proposal did not meet with widespread approval in Europe, the USA or China, all of which already emit more than two tons of carbon dioxide per capita.

“And that basically means you have to start reducing now. We industrialized countries accept that. But a country like China says: Just look at how many decades you have increased your CO 2 emissions; we can't start reducing now at our economic level. - So you see what a great task we are facing. "

In her keynote address to around 35 ministers from countries that are collectively responsible for 80 percent of greenhouse gases, Angela Merkel also called for a technology transfer to those countries that have not already been able to benefit from the advantages of industrialization:

"So we have to develop technology so that for these countries the increase in prosperity, the fight against climate change and social concerns are not mutually exclusive."

reception

Documentaries such as ThuleTuvalu , released in 2015, were made to raise awareness of the possible consequences of climate change . The aim of the film, which describes the effects of global warming on the population of particularly affected areas around Thule in northern Greenland and the Tuvalu archipelago , is to clearly show the consequences of global warming by 2 ° Celsius.

See also

literature

  • Nikolai Fichtner: Change in Climate Policy. The force of science. In: taz of October 11, 2007 ( online ).
  • Sybille Bauriedl (Hrsg.): Dictionary climate debate. Transcript, Bielefeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-8376-3238-5 .
  • Richard Brand, Thomas Hirsch: What does climate justice mean? From principle to political practice. In: Yearbook Justice , Volume 5 ( People - Climate - Future? ), 2012, pp. 62–71 ( PDF ).
  • Felix Ekardt: Theory of Sustainability. Legal, ethical and political approaches - using the example of climate change, scarcity of resources and world trade. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2011, ISBN 978-3-8329-6032-2 .
  • Felix Ekardt (Ed.): Climate Justice. Ethical, legal, economic and transdisciplinary approaches. Metropolis Verlag, Marburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-89518-901-2 .
  • Anton Leist: climate justice. In: Information Philosophy , Volume 5, 2011 ( PDF ).
  • Theodor Rathgeber: Climate change violates human rights. About the prerequisites for a just climate policy. Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86928-011-0 ( PDF ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See e.g. B. Theodor Rathgeber, Ed. Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung , Berlin 2009, boell.de: Climate change violates human rights , p. 32: “In several places there has already been talk of“ particularly vulnerable population groups ”. There is no definitive definition for this, but in the context of climate change this includes nomads , family fishermen, rain and shifting field farmers , subsistence farmers , slum dwellers , marginalized inhabitants in river regions and on coasts , members of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities , people with disabilities , women, children and seniors , insofar as they are directly exposed to the weather risk and have only limited resources to adapt to the changed climate. "
  2. ↑ Chancellor Merkel starts a new climate initiative. Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, August 30, 2007.
  3. ↑ How climate protection should be organized ( memento of October 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), BundesregierungONLINE of October 9, 2007.
  4. ↑ Stephen Leonard: The polluters should pay for the consequences of climate change . For example, "According to a study conducted by scientist Rick Heede in 2013, nearly two-thirds of the carbon dioxide emissions since the 1750s can be traced back to just 90 of the largest producers of fossil fuels and cement, most of which are always different are still in business. "
  5. ↑ See e.g. B. the moral-philosophical considerations of Anton Leist in Anton Leist: Climate Justice . There it says on p. 1: “For many who are approaching the ethical problem of climate change for the first time, the historical principle of responsibility is in the foreground. However, it is easy to overlook the unusual obstacles that morality faces when it is applied to collectives and to intergenerational periods. "
  6. ^ Website of the Symposium Global Sustainability - A Nobel Cause from October 8 to 10, 2007 in Potsdam.
  7. ↑ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Framework Convention on Climate Change) . ( unfccc.int [PDF; 54 kB ]).
  8. ↑ Framework Convention on Climate Change, Art. 4 (2) a)
  9. ↑ Framework Convention on Climate Change, Art. 11 (2)
  10. ↑ Annalisa Savaresi: The Paris Agreement: a new beginning? In: Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law . tape 34 , 1: Climate Change Justice: Challenges and Opportunities, January 28, 2016, doi : 10.1080 / 02646811.2016.1133983 .
  11. ↑ a b Speech by Chancellor Angela Merkel on the occasion of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue IV "Shaping the Future" , May 6, 2013, accessed on May 26, 2013.
  12. ^ Petersberg Climate Dialogue IV “Shaping the Future” , May 6, 2013, as well as an overview of Climate Dialogues I – IV.
  13. ↑ ThuleTuvalu - Impressive documentary about the global climate problem (in theaters from August 13th). In: forum-csr.net. www.forum-csr.net, accessed on October 8, 2015 .