What
JusTiDe is about the role of time and justice in Denmark's climate politics. The Danish Climate Act (2020) states that Denmark has a "historical and moral responsibility to take first steps" in leading global climate change mitigation. Living up to this responsibility requires more than current policies if one accepts the climate justice principles provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This project aims to shed new light on the commitments to just and accelerated decarbonization in the Danish Climate Act. It investigates how climate justice is understood by civil society groups, expert bodies, decision-makers and interest groups in Denmark and analyzes the implications of climate justice for sustainable welfare and global climate leadership.
Why
The perspective of basing Danish climate politics on justice-principles opens up new research horizons for how to understand connections betweeen environmental change, local political cultures and socio-ecological transformation. The role of climate justice in Danish politics has not been subjected to deeper scrutiny in cultural, political, and social research, despite the Climate Act's commitments and the growing international interest in the Danish climate policy debate. With an investigation of Danish ideas about climate justice, the project seeks to address this lack of knowledge and to enlarge the field with a focus on how expectations about time and global justice relate to political agency in climate justice discussions.
How
The project will be conducted by a group of four researchers working on three subprojects. The first will integrate political theory and environmental history to identify relevant fora, concepts, and types of agency that have shaped the debate on climate justice in Denmark. The second will analyse different tensions between notions of social justice integral to the Danish welfare state and the globally-oriented principles of climate justice advanced by civil society groups and scientists. The third places Danish climate politics in the context of past and present ideas of international climate leadership, inequality and historical responsibilities to explain ongoing Danish disagreements on what it means to be a global frontrunner.
SSR
The project takes the Danish Climate Act as a point of departure to showcase new problem horizons for stakeholders in the Danish green transition, concerning interpretations of the Danish carbon budget and the future of sustainable welfare models.