How to ensure climate justice means climate justice

A new tool that will help scientists and policymakers make justice an unambiguous element of climate decisions has been developed by a team of international researchers. With buzz words used like confetti, critical terms like climate justice can often be misused and misunderstood – to combat this the pioneering new framework created through the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) gives form to a concept that can too often be lost in translation.

“This framework aims to achieve three goals: improve clarity by using terminology from justice scholarship; promote awareness and consistency in examining justice concerns as part of a coherent whole; and enhance comparability across scenarios and modeling contexts, to facilitate discussions on these issues,” explains IIASA researcher Caroline Zimm, one of the study lead authors.

To activate the framework, the researchers are recommending a Justice Model Intercomparison Project (JUSTMIP) is created around mitigation scenarios.

“JUSTMIP would provide reporting templates for in-depth exploration of various research aspects, sectors, and model comparisons within the context of scenarios used by the next IPCC Assessment Report. This will raise awareness about the possibilities and limitations regarding justice considerations in these scenarios and enhance transparency,” says IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program Director, Keywan Riahi.

Intended to shift the needle on this issue, by creating a ‘multidimensional understanding of justice’ in relation to climate change, the goal of the new framework is to provide clarity and cohesion.

“It is important to note that our framework does not aim to evaluate what is just or unjust but rather provides a structured platform for identifying and discussing justice considerations. By bringing clarity and consistency to the discourse surrounding climate justice, this framework will empower both researchers and policymakers to navigate the intricate justice landscape and ensure that justice is a fundamental aspect of climate policy decisions,” adds co-lead author Kian Mintz-Woo, a guest researcher at IIASA.