Mitigation justice

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Reich, Peter B.; Grace, Kathryn; Agrawal, Arun; Nagendra, Harini
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; University of Notre Dame; Azim Premji Foundation; Azim Premji University Bengaluru
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-12236
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2411231122
• 发表日期: 2025-04-29
• 关键词: climate-change; carbon taxes; consumption; IMPACT; mortality; migration; EQUALITY; HEALTH; POLICY; energy

摘要

Mitigating climate change and social injustice are critical, interwoven challenges. Climate change is driven by grossly unequal contributions to elevated greenhouse gas emissions among individuals, socioeconomic groups, and nations. Yet, its deleterious impacts disproportionately affect poor and less powerful nations, and the poor and the less powerful within each nation. This climate injustice prompts a call for mitigation strategies that buffer the poorest and the most vulnerable against climate change impacts. Unfortunately, all emissions mitigation strategies also reshape social, economic, political, and ecological processes in ways that may create climate change mitigation injustices-i.e., a unique set of injustices not caused by climate change, but by the strategies designed to stem it. Failing to stop climate change is not an answer-this will swamp all adverse impacts of even unjust mitigation in terms of the scope and scale of disastrous consequences. However, mitigation withoutjustice will create uniquely negative consequences for the more vulnerable. The ensuing analysis systematically assesses how climate change mitigation strategies can generate or ameliorate injustices. We first examine how climate science and social justice interact within and among countries. We then ask what there is to learn from the available evidence on how emissions reductions, well-being, and equity have unfolded in a set of countries. Finally, we discuss the intersection between emissions reduction and mitigation justice through actions in important domains including energy, technology, transport, and food systems; nature-based solutions; and policy and governance.