Where to aim with multispecies climate justice? A critical realist account

Climate justice has become a key concept in addressing normative challenges in climate change and related policies. However, most applications of the term have remained anthropocentric. The multispecies justice perspective seeks to remedy this anthropocentrism, through focusing on relationality between and among human and non-human actors in climate justice. We engage with three points where this perspective remains to be developed further: the scope of ‘subjects of justice’, the meaning of ‘justice’ and institutional applications of multispecies justice. We argue that the reliance in multispecies justice literature upon hybridist ontologies of nature and society hampers advancement in these three aspects. We, therefore, propose an alternative ontological foundation, based on critical realism, that can resolve these limitations in current approaches to multispecies justice, contributing to further development of the concept.