Procedural Climate Justice : Conceptualizing a Polycentric Solution to a Global Problem

Historically, the debate on climate change governance has been centered around a global treaty on carbon pricing, where burdens and benefits were to be shared according to standards of distributive justice. Recently, three alternative concepts have emerged in this discourse: polycentric climate governance, procedural climate justice, and climate policy including adaptation and directed technical change. These three concepts have not yet been investigated as a common framework. This article bridges the gap in the literature by integrating the three concepts into a conceptual system. We show how polycentric governance fulfils procedural justice norms. And following procedural norms can make polycentric systems more effective. We show how adaptation policy and directed technical change may effectively reduce the risk from climate change in a procedurally just polycentric climate regime. Our novel conceptual system answers more adequately than the conventional approach to the difficulties of governing climate change, including uncertainty and pluralism. The article contributes to each of the literature streams on climate justice, governance, and policy by showing implications of and interrelations between the discussed concepts. And we contribute a novel framework for climate policy makers and researchers to situate their efforts and to navigate the complex problems of the climate crisis