Research

^{Ausserferrera, Switzerland, 2023}

I’m interested in how we can combat climate injustice and how climate science and climate law can help us along the way. Thus my work is highly interdisciplinary. My expertise and research interests can be divided into four blocks:

Justice for loss and damage. In my main body of research, I have aimed to fundamentally shift the scientific and public conversation on climate justice from future generations to current generations by addressing the justice aspects of the already-occurring negative impacts of climate change (‘loss and damage’) and its implications for policymaking. I have investigated what kinds of climate impacts should receive compensation, how climate science can help us identify them and who should bear the burdens of addressing them.

Philosophy of climate science. I am also interested in the mutual influence between the work of (climate) scientists and society at large. For example, I have worked with atmospheric scientists to explore the justice implications of scientific methods for attributing particular extreme weather events to climate change (i.e., attribution studies). I have also worked on the compatibility between the presence of non-epistemic values in climate science and the legitimacy of climate policies that are based on that science .

Normative perspective in emissions accounting.  International climate treaties are intended to distribute emissions entitlements and mitigation burdens among different parties. But before we can decide how much each party is left to emit or which parties should reduce GHG emissions and by how much, we need to know who emitted how much. This is not only an empirical question, but also a philosophical and normative one, as the answer to such question depends on assumptions about causal and moral responsibility. In my work, I have proposed some possible answers to that question.

Philosophy of climate law. I am interested in the normative aspects of climate litigation and the role of courts of justice in addressing climate change. I have worked with lawyers to understand how courts of justice can contribute to a particular (normative) understanding of climate justice. Currently, I am expanding that research. At a political level, I am interested in the legitimacy of judicial interventions in climate policies (i.e., the legitimacy of climate judicial review) and the procedural and substantive fairness involved in climate litigation practices. At an ethical level, I am interested in the ethical responsibilities of legal practitioners and the conditions for ethical engagement in climate legal action. As part of this research strand, I am co-coordinating a reading group within the Erasmus Legal Philosophy Group.

I have explored these and other questions in my book and publications.

Additionally, I strive for my research to make a difference outside the academic world. You can check my outreach contributions here!