The Triangular Affair of Sufficientarian Justice in Decarbonization and Biodiversity Protection

This paper argues in favor of the triangular affair of justice that concerns all efforts to mitigate climate change. The affair consists of a threefold conflict between sufficiency entitlements of human beings either potentially undermined by climate change or various decarbonization measures. At the same time, climate change and decarbonization have similar effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services. This means that not reducing emissions and letting climate change happen conflicts with human entitlements and ecosystem functioning while decarbonizing can have the very same effects on humans and biodiversity. Overall, this paper shows that in decarbonization these conflicts need to be considered, but it also acknowledges that with careful choice of measures synergies are possible.

In a first section I show how in the literature on climate justice the duty to decarbonize has been justified as a claim of sufficientarian justice. Discussing the implications of such claims of justice provides the normative basis for conceptualizing the triangular affair developed in this paper. The section thereafter explains the negative implications of decarbonization for sufficiency thresholds. I argue that many measures to decarbonize imply a threat to sufficiency entitlements of justice of similar importance as the ones to be secured by emission abatement. Considering biodiversity decline uncovers further infringements of sufficiency levels of justice. Climate change as well as some decarbonization measures risk undermining the functioning of ecosystems or the services they provide. This leads to the triangular affair that in my eyes must be considered in all decarbonizing transitions. By discussing this affair and potential synergies I finally show how tragic choices can be avoided by relying on a weak interpretation of sufficientarian justice.

I demonstrate that potential conflicts exist between three angles of sufficiency entitlements: i) sufficiency entitlements threatened by climate change, ii) sufficiency thresholds at risk due to decarbonization measures, and iii) sufficiency thresholds that presuppose protecting biodiversity. Sufficientarian approaches of justice form the basis for conceptualizing this triangular affair of decarbonization. Although navigating between the three angles of the affair poses challenges to these approaches, weak sufficientarianism provides options for resolving the identified potential conflicts.