Unpacking the Complications of Procedural Justice in the ‘Anthropocene’

Procedural justice research and action is often focused on local-level issues, where advocacy emphasize the importance of local communities having the ability to have meaningful influence in environmental decision-making that will impact them and their communities. Yet the problems of the Anthropocene present unique tensions to thinking about issues of procedural justice. For example, some local communities in the Global North that historically rely on oil and gas or mining reject transitions to renewable energy systems and their implementation locally. While ignoring local desires and visions for their own communities’ futures can violate principles of procedural justice, submitting to the will of local communities in these cases may contribute to increased harm at a larger scale for other communities. In other cases where climate change is contributing to the potential migration and displacement of people, current models of procedural justice fail to capture the role of power and privilege not for those who control decision-making processes, but also for those who have the resources to opt-out of decision-making processes due to their ability to relocate or otherwise avoid the impacts of climate change. This talk will explore these contradictions and complications across several ongoing energy and climate projects underway in the western US.