مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - The Travail of a New Social Order: Climate (In)justice and the Significance of the Rights-Based Approach

Abstract :

As a result of humans attempting to dominate and transform nature, climate change has become the greatest threat which humanity and the planet faces in the 21st century. The effects of climate change disproportionately affect the poorest, most marginal and most vulnerable people. However these people are those who are the least responsible for the problem and who are least able to adapt to it. Current political instruments and international institutions are insufficient to solving this problem. This study deals with climate justice within the framework of different approaches to justice; climate debt at the point of historical responsibility. Through a descriptive study, this article aims to put forth a distinctive discussion by drawing attention to the fact that the discussion of climate justice is based upon the structural elements of the existing social order. A further aim is to emphasize the importance of relocating the right-based approach from the periphery to the center. Until today climate change, as an unprecedented global threat, has the capacity to bring many different sides together, yet the solution is still far away within the current economic and political system in terms of causes and consequences. At this point, climate justice can be seen as the painful labour for a new social order that is both fair and livable.