Meeting on Thin Ice: The Potential for Restorative Climate Justice in Deglaciating Environments

Abstract

According to Jones, the climate emergency is also a crisis of justice, with concepts and mechanisms challenged by new global relationships. Restorative justice offers a potential path forward, filling in some of the gaps between political agreement, legal liability and development aid. Following Margaret Urban Walker’s identified principles, Jones suggests a potential framework for restorative climate justice initiatives between groups in the majority and minority worlds. The chapter highlights the particular situation of communities in the Peruvian Andes affected by the environmental, social and economic harms of deglaciation, all of which inevitably intersect with underlying structural oppressions. The author suggests ways in which restorative climate justice could help bring about transformational change in such complex situations.