Climate Justice as Imperial Hubris of the West

Keywords: Global governance institutions, Capitalist mode of production, exploitation, imperialism, market expansion, coal dependence.
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This paper examines the contemporary rhetoric and politics of climate justice by embedding it in historical-geographical materialism. I argue that climate justice has become the new episteme with which the liberal West continues to exercise imperial power. Global Governance Institutions, that continue to ensure Western domination, have made a mockery of the very idea of justice. The social relations of exploitation, slave trade and plunder, that the North has exercised on the Global South is the very basis of its wealth and opulence. Hence, it is imperial hubris when the West mentions ‘loans’, ‘help’ and ‘responsibility’ as part of their climate ‘justice’ strategy when there is no acknowledgement of theft that now make granting ‘loans’ possible. Additionally, the West, as guardians of climate justice continue to promote private ownership of the earth with relatively new categories such as carbon sinks, carbon trading, cap and trade, amongst others geared at extending capitalism’s insatiable need for exponential growth. And while the North is concerned about its future, the poor in the Global South struggles to survive in the present. In other words, the very institutions and social relations, nationally and internationally, that are unjust and have taken us to the precipice of climate disaster cannot produce climate justice. In this paper, I reflect on how a level playing field, between the global North and South, to address climate change can be created; what exploitative social relations need dismantling to address climate change; and how the impediments to social justice can be removed.