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Constructions of climate justice in German, Indian and US media

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Abstract

Collective action on climate change is easier when the involved actors share an understanding of climate justice, that is, if they agree on the morally right way of dealing with the issue. Such understandings have been shown to vary, however. Based on German, Indian and US media coverage, we develop a typology of different constructions of climate justice. The five patterns we identify differ considerably across several dimensions, including the valuation of certain goods and rights, the definition of moral in-groups, and the basic principles for climate governance. These patterns can be found in all three countries, but their importance varies between them. The US debate is especially conflictive, with some actors emphasizing freedom from state intervention and others demanding provident political action. Although the positions in Germany and India are less divergent, there is also no agreement on how to address climate change in a just way in these countries. In particular, the conflict between global and intergenerational justice demands – reflecting the nature of climate change – and the enduring relevance of traditional conceptions focusing on contemporary and national communities are intricate.

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Notes

  1. This is not to say that other levels, including the local and regional, are not important. The mitigative and adaptive potential of cities, for example, is considerable (Castán Broto and Bulkeley 2013). However, much of the legislative powers rests with national bodies (Lidskog and Elander 2010; Townshend et al. 2013).

  2. Of course, actors may employ arguments for different reasons. They may represent stakeholders' ‘real’ perceptions of climate change and their deeply held moral convictions. However, they may also be used strategically, based on self-interest. While we cannot confirm such intentions from analyzing media coverage, our results shed light on which justice perceptions are prevalent and recognized on the societal level.

  3. Quotes are referenced by the abbreviated name of the newspaper, publication date and information on the speaker, which consists of country or institution (ISO 3166 standard), societal sphere (adm[inistration], bus[iness], [‘ordinary] citiz[ens], environ[mental organization], intellect[ual (without scientific affiliation)], journal[ist], lab[or union], pol[itician], rel[igious representative], sci[entific actor], tt [think tank]) and sometimes political orientation (com[munist], soc[cial democratic/progressive], lib[eral, center-right], con[servative/Christian democratic], nat[ionalist]). Quotes from German newspapers have been translated by the authors.

  4. There is considerable evidence that perceptions on climate change and related policy preferences vary substantially between liberal and conservative publics in the United States (Hart and Nisbet 2012; Kahan et al. 2012).

  5. It is noteworthy that we did not find much evidence for “civic environmentalism” (Bäckstrand and Lövbrand 2007) and “green radicalism” (Dryzek 2005) perspectives, which would advance alternative forms of coordination resting upon the civil society and bottom-up processes. In part, this might be a consequence of the research focus on climate governance. However, other studies (Hart and Feldman 2014) have also shown that media focus on the responsibility and capability of collective actors rather than individual initiatives. There is, however, some evidence for the attribution of individual responsibility for climate action (see Berglez et al. 2009; Anderson 2011).

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Acknowledgements

The research presented here was supported by the Cluster of Excellence ‘CliSAP’ (EXC177), Universität Hamburg, funded through the German Research Foundation (DFG) and by funds from the Center for a Sustainable University (University of Hamburg). We thank Tjado Barsuhn for his assistance with several steps of the project. Moreover, we are grateful for constructive comments by Gregor Betz and three anonymous reviewers.

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  1. German Aeorspace Center (DLR), Project Management Agency, Bonn, Germany

    Andreas Schmidt

  2. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Mike S. Schäfer

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Correspondence to Andreas Schmidt.

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This article is part of a Special Issue on “Climate Justice in Interdisciplinary Research” edited by Christian Huggel, Markus Ohndorf, Dominic Roser, and Ivo Wallimann-Helmer.

This paper is linked to the following contribution of this special issue: Betz, doi 10.1007/s10584-015-1489-9

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Schmidt, A., Schäfer, M.S. Constructions of climate justice in German, Indian and US media. Climatic Change 133, 535–549 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-015-1488-x

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