Why Explore “Transitional Justice” in the Climate Context?

The document explores the application of transitional justice—traditionally used to transition societies from injustice to peace—to the climate context. It identifies five key similarities between the two fields: the tension between backward- and forward-looking claims, unavoidable interdependencies, limited judicial capabilities, the management of profound loss, and inherent power imbalances. The brief concludes that ignoring historical justice claims risks the unraveling of climate agreements and suggests that a combination of mechanisms, such as truth commissions and reparations, is needed to build trust and legitimacy for future-oriented regimes.

• The Paris Agreement bypassed existing justice tensions regarding responsibility for accumulated emissions, which may intensify as climate impacts and mitigation challenges grow, potentially causing the current settlement to unravel.
• There are five primary similarities between international climate negotiations and traditional transitional justice: the need to balance historical injustice with future regimes, global interdependencies where no country can act alone, the inadequacy of existing legal systems to identify 'victims' and 'perpetrators' in complex systems, the occurrence of profound losses (including life and culture), and the presence of power imbalances in contentious political processes.
• Effective movement toward solidarity in conflict-ridden situations requires acknowledging responsibility to create legitimacy and trust, while balancing the need for protection from retribution for those with historical responsibility to ensure cooperation.
• Because there is no single standard approach to transitional justice, a tailored combination of multiple mechanisms from the 'tool-box' is required to break stalemates; specifically, discussions of liability, amnesty, reparations, and truth commissions are identified as most relevant to the climate context.

APA

Klinsky, S. (2016). Why Explore “Transitional Justice” in the Climate Context? Climate Strategies. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Brief-1-Why-Explore-Transitional-Justice-in-the-Climate-Context.pdf

Chicago

Klinsky, Sonja. Why Explore “Transitional Justice” in the Climate Context? Climate Strategies, 2016. https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Brief-1-Why-Explore-Transitional-Justice-in-the-Climate-Context.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Klinsky |first1=Sonja |title=Why Explore “Transitional Justice” in the Climate Context? |publisher=Climate Strategies |date=November 2016 |url=https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Brief-1-Why-Explore-Transitional-Justice-in-the-Climate-Context.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{klinsky2016why, author = {Klinsky, Sonja}, title = {{Why Explore “Transitional Justice” in the Climate Context?}}, institution = {Climate Strategies}, year = {2016}, month = nov, url = {https://climatestrategies.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Brief-1-Why-Explore-Transitional-Justice-in-the-Climate-Context.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }