Political feasibility of 1.5°C societal transformations: the role of social justice

Patterson, James, Thaler, Thomas, Hoffmann, Matthew, Hughes, Sara, Oels, Angela, Chu, Eric, Mert, Aysem, Huitema, Dave, Burch, Sarah and Jordan, Andy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7678-1024 (2018) Political feasibility of 1.5°C societal transformations: the role of social justice. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 31. pp. 1-9. ISSN 1877-3435

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Abstract

Constraining global climate change to 1.5°C is commonly understood to require urgent and deep societal transformations. Yet such transformations are not always viewed as politically feasible; finding ways to enhance the political feasibility of ambitious decarbonization trajectories is needed. This paper reviews the role of social justice as an organizing principle for politically feasible 1.5°C transformations. A social justice lens usefully focuses attention on first, protecting vulnerable people from climate change impacts, second, protecting people from disruptions of transformation, and finally, enhancing the process of envisioning and implementing an equitable post-carbon society. However, justice-focused arguments could also have unintended consequences, such as being deployed against climate action. Hence proactively engaging with social justice is critical in navigating 1.5°C societal transformations.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups: University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
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Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2017 06:07
Last Modified: 14 Jun 2023 13:13
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/65765
DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2017.11.002

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