Rethinking Climate Justice: Toward Ecological Limitarianism

This article argues that climate justice should be discussed from a limitarian perspective and that limitarianism should be extended from wealth limitarianism to ecological limitarianism. It shows how egalitarian and sufficientarian considerations on climate change mitigation can be combined with an ecological limitarian approach to climate justice. This approach is built on a distinction between an institutional level composed of carbon markets and sufficiency policies and an individual level composed of ecological citizenship and a sustainable carbon footprint. To develop individual limitarianism, the article draws on virtue ethics and frames carbon sobriety as a key green virtue of ecological citizens.