A climate <i>Justice</i> emergency? A critical examination of the risks of a climate emergency through population crisis discourses and India's political emergencies

This paper critically examines the idea of climate emergency as a motivator for swifter social, cultural, and political change. Climate emergencies are intended to push politicians and citizens to act fast while asserting control over particular agendas and dissolving opposition. Yet, it is not always clear what actions actors might take in response to such an emergency and to what justice outcomes. The paper juxtaposes the politics and discourses from two key moments of political emergency in India: The constitutional emergency of 1975 and the present moment, when, since 2014, an ethnonationalist party in power has systematically dismantled citizens’ rights. The paper travels back and forth between the historical and present emergencies to explore the discourse continuities and the dangerous exclusions that arise under the guise of emergency and urgency. A common concern with the population growth of marginalised groups of people as an ecological and social problem, and population control and reduction as a solution, unites these two phases of the Indian Emergency with influential groups of Western scientists and cultural interlocutors campaigning for a climate emergency. These illiberal measures show points of consensus between groups that self-identify as liberal and concerned with climate justice and those who fall into the category of far-right ethnonationalist politics. This illustrates a certain insidious agreement on racialised emergency responses to climate change among traditionally politically unaligned actors. Instead of centring justice questions that make those with more power and privilege accountable, climate emergency proponents, in the best case, dilute this by emphasising the population question and, in the worst case, use the emergency arguments to target marginalised citizens while shifting attention away from the powerful. The paper argues that climate emergency arguments are counterproductive to climate justice, and their increasing acceptance and normalisation reveal a climate justice emergency.