Towards a neo-ecological ethic of solidarity: an analysis of the participatory and distributive dimensions of intragenerational and intergenerational climate justice.

In view of the reverse relation between historical responsibility for and vulnerability to global climate change, it is necessary to include the intra- as well as the intergenerational aspect in a theory of climate justice. However, the emphasis on intragenerational distributive justice - currently dominant in the pragmatic-political discourse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Accord as well as in the theoretical discourse - however ignores intragenerational participatory justice, and intergenerational justice altogether, due to the profound theoretical lacunae in the present conceptual framework. The main goal of this research project is to construct a conception of justice, with respect to the climate issue, that takes account of future as well as current generations and integrates the participatory as well as the distributive dimension. In the first phase we will investigate which participatory and distributive issues arise with regard to the intra- and intergenerational aspects of climate justice. The findings from this phase will lead, in the second phase, to the construction of an overarching ethical perspective on climate justice. This normative phase includes a comprehensive analysis of the ethics of solidarity, in order to conceptualise participatory justice, and of a neo-ecological perspective on distributive justice.