Contemplating climate justice with the natural law:The application of climate citizenship through public policies at the local level

Abstract

This study argues the concept of climate justice. It provides a lens towards how the word justice have been conceptualized from climate justice scholars and how the scope of justice is considered within climate justice literature. This study contends that climate justice can be achieved if and only if from the basis of natural laws and public policy and local justice are necessary for the implication of these rights. In order to establish a well-grounded debate for this thesis, first, justice is argued as an essentially contested concept. Justice as an essentially contested concept can be understood from substantive and procedural accounts based on their consequentialist and process-oriented perspectives. In addition to this, throughout the history the word justice also has been thought alongside with an issue such as the lack of freedom. Due to this, concepts of environmental justice and climate justice can be regarded as contemporary conceptions of issue-oriented thinking of justice. Thus, since both concepts mainly have considered the lack of justice as an anthropocentric and substantive issue. But these concepts have overlooked to discuss that how decision-making bodies have structured, what is the role of rational agents, and is there any place for non-anthropocentric world within climate change policies. Though, justice should be considered from procedural perspective and natural law account of justice because of considering justice as an intrinsic value, people have a practical reason and the good of nature is indispensable from the good of people presents an encompassing view. Furthermore, climate justice studies have also overlooked the issue of the importance of the basic rights -climate citizenship rights- of all living beings because without ensuring the basic rights of all, climate justice cannot be achieved. Therefore, through considering public policy and local justice theories we can understand how decision-making process has shaped and how climate citizenship rights can be applied.