Tesi etd-01192026-104311
Link copiato negli appunti
Tipo di tesi
Corso di Dottorato (D.M.226/2021)
Autore
ADERA, BINYAM MEKONNEN
URN
etd-01192026-104311
Titolo
Climate Change and Intergenerational Justice: An African Philosophical Perspective towards Responsibility, Equity and Sustainability
Settore scientifico disciplinare
M-FIL/03
Corso di studi
Istituto di Diritto, Politica e Sviluppo - Ph.D. in Human Rights and Global Politics: Legal, Philosophical and Economics Challenges
Relatori
relatore PIRNI, ALBERTO EUGENIO ERMENEGILDO
Parole chiave
- Anthropocene
- climate change
- equity
- forward-looking distributive justice
- historical responsibility
- Intergenerational justice
- Pan-Africanism
- relational egalitarianism
- right to development
- sustainability
- Ubuntu
Data inizio appello
18/02/2026;
Disponibilità
completa
Riassunto analitico
The central aim of this thesis is to investigate the ethical foundations of intergenerational climate justice from an African philosophical and historical standpoint and to develop a normative framework through which Africa can articulate its responsibilities to future generations while asserting its legitimate claims within global climate politics. The inquiry begins with a question that shapes contemporary debates: whether the framework of historical responsibility, grounded in restitution and the correction of past wrongs, can sustain a coherent account of Africa’s future-oriented climate duties. Although Africa’s negligible contribution to cumulative greenhouse gas emissions and its experience of extractive development appear to support rectificatory claims, the thesis argues that an exclusively backward-looking posture yields a temporally unstable and normatively incomplete set of obligations.
Philosophical discussions have increasingly questioned how far rectificatory principles can guide action under demographic discontinuity, the non-identity of future persons, and persistent uncertainty regarding historical emissions. These constraints make it difficult to align present duties strictly with earlier harms. Moreover, globalization, ecological interdependence, and intensified pressures on natural resources have reshaped the moral context in which climate decisions are taken. In such a transformed landscape, intergenerational justice must be reconceived as a practice that links present agency to the preservation of future life conditions, rather than to the restoration of a damaged past.
This thesis argues that Africa’s historical experience and ethical traditions offer a distinct philosophical route into intergenerational climate justice, which avoids the impasses generated by retrospective paradigms and grounds responsibility in a forward-facing, relational conception of agency. It develops a view of Forward-Looking Climate Justice (F-LCJ), which locates moral responsibility not in culpability for past emissions but in the evaluative capacities, anticipatory reasoning, and developmental choices of current generations. This shift in temporal orientation enables Africa to position itself not merely as a recipient of harm but as a constructive participant in the shaping of global climate ethics.
Three important questions guide the study: whether a region historically situated as environmentally disadvantaged can claim a normative role in global climate governance; whether forward-looking principles can be reconciled with African egalitarian and communitarian ethics; and how duties to future persons, non-reciprocating and as yet indeterminate, can be grounded in an ethical structure that is both developmentally realistic and normatively robust.
Three claims animate the analysis. First, intergenerational justice must integrate concerns of intragenerational equity to avoid reinforcing structural inequality. Second, historical responsibility retains moral weight but cannot by itself determine Africa’s climate obligations. Third, African communitarian philosophy, especially the ethics of ubuntu, discloses substantive resources capable of extending and deepening global theories of climate justice.
Methodologically, the thesis employs an interdisciplinary philosophical strategy drawing on normative political philosophy, African Indigenous ethics, climate science, international law, human rights theory, and historical and developmental analysis. It proceeds through three methodological orientations: normative reasoning, enabling the articulation of principles concerning responsibility and fairness across temporal scales; contextual interpretation, situating these principles within Africa’s historical marginalization, ecological vulnerability, and development needs; and epistemic pluralism, which treats African relational ontologies and non-linear temporalities as crucial philosophical foundations.
This pluralistic approach enables the study to address universal questions of justice while remaining attentive to Africa’s material conditions and intellectual traditions. It bridges mainstream debates on non-identity, reasons, and moral aggregation with African philosophical accounts of relational personhood, where the self is constituted through social and ecological interdependence.
The thesis first examines the limitations of retrospective climate ethics in Africa’s context. Although rectificatory justice is morally appealing, its application across generations becomes indeterminate. Incomplete emissions data and opaque causal pathways reduce the effectiveness of backward-looking approaches and may generate moral impasses rather than constructive direction. A strict focus on historical responsibility may also limit Africa’s developmental prospects, creating new forms of future injustice.
In response, the thesis advances the concept of Forward-Looking Climate Justice (F-LCJ), grounded in the idea that the future’s moral significance lies not in the radical repair of earlier harms but in the prevention of foreseeable suffering. This outlook shifts the ethical field from compensation towards stewardship, anticipatory agency, and shared responsibility for intergenerational life conditions. It accommodates Africa’s demographic trajectory, ecological exposure, and development priorities. It also affirms the continent’s right to a fair portion of the remaining carbon budget while grounding corresponding responsibilities in its projected emissions path and technological choices.
Two distributive principles anchor this framework. The first, the per-capita emissions principle, asserts equal moral entitlement to the atmospheric commons, supporting Africa’s claim to an equitable share of the remaining carbon space while constraining excessive emissions from historically high-emitting states. The second, the future developmental right, recognizes Africa’s legitimate claim to sustainable industrialization and technological progress. These principles prevent intergenerational duties from imposing undue burdens on structurally vulnerable populations.
The thesis then turns to African philosophical resources, especially ubuntu, to enrich the conceptual foundation of forward-looking climate justice. Ubuntu rejects the individualist assumptions of many Western distributive theories, proposing instead a relational conception of personhood grounded in mutual care. In this vision, temporal relations are interwoven, linking the living, the dead, and the unborn in a continuous moral community. Climate responsibility is thus framed not as a response to rights claims by future individuals but as relational stewardship: the sustained maintenance of ecological and social conditions that enable life across generations.
Integrating ubuntu with the distributive principles of F-LCJ, the thesis proposes a hybrid tool of climate justice tailored to Africa’s historical situation, developmental aspirations, and intellectual heritage. This tool positions Africa as a normative actor capable of contributing new ethical concepts for sustainability and planetary care.
In conclusion, the thesis maintains that Africa’s experience. marked by marginal emissions, vulnerability, and colonial exploitation, need not confine it to a backward-looking moral stance. These conditions can instead ground a forward-oriented ethical vision shaped by ubuntu’s relational ontology and articulated through rigorous normative principles. Such a vision enables Africa to pursue climate justice more effectively while offering indigenous philosophical insights to global debates on sustainability. The broader task is to cultivate a moral imagination that views justice not merely as the correction of past wrongs but as the ongoing, collective work of safeguarding the conditions under which human and ecological life can flourish across generations.
Philosophical discussions have increasingly questioned how far rectificatory principles can guide action under demographic discontinuity, the non-identity of future persons, and persistent uncertainty regarding historical emissions. These constraints make it difficult to align present duties strictly with earlier harms. Moreover, globalization, ecological interdependence, and intensified pressures on natural resources have reshaped the moral context in which climate decisions are taken. In such a transformed landscape, intergenerational justice must be reconceived as a practice that links present agency to the preservation of future life conditions, rather than to the restoration of a damaged past.
This thesis argues that Africa’s historical experience and ethical traditions offer a distinct philosophical route into intergenerational climate justice, which avoids the impasses generated by retrospective paradigms and grounds responsibility in a forward-facing, relational conception of agency. It develops a view of Forward-Looking Climate Justice (F-LCJ), which locates moral responsibility not in culpability for past emissions but in the evaluative capacities, anticipatory reasoning, and developmental choices of current generations. This shift in temporal orientation enables Africa to position itself not merely as a recipient of harm but as a constructive participant in the shaping of global climate ethics.
Three important questions guide the study: whether a region historically situated as environmentally disadvantaged can claim a normative role in global climate governance; whether forward-looking principles can be reconciled with African egalitarian and communitarian ethics; and how duties to future persons, non-reciprocating and as yet indeterminate, can be grounded in an ethical structure that is both developmentally realistic and normatively robust.
Three claims animate the analysis. First, intergenerational justice must integrate concerns of intragenerational equity to avoid reinforcing structural inequality. Second, historical responsibility retains moral weight but cannot by itself determine Africa’s climate obligations. Third, African communitarian philosophy, especially the ethics of ubuntu, discloses substantive resources capable of extending and deepening global theories of climate justice.
Methodologically, the thesis employs an interdisciplinary philosophical strategy drawing on normative political philosophy, African Indigenous ethics, climate science, international law, human rights theory, and historical and developmental analysis. It proceeds through three methodological orientations: normative reasoning, enabling the articulation of principles concerning responsibility and fairness across temporal scales; contextual interpretation, situating these principles within Africa’s historical marginalization, ecological vulnerability, and development needs; and epistemic pluralism, which treats African relational ontologies and non-linear temporalities as crucial philosophical foundations.
This pluralistic approach enables the study to address universal questions of justice while remaining attentive to Africa’s material conditions and intellectual traditions. It bridges mainstream debates on non-identity, reasons, and moral aggregation with African philosophical accounts of relational personhood, where the self is constituted through social and ecological interdependence.
The thesis first examines the limitations of retrospective climate ethics in Africa’s context. Although rectificatory justice is morally appealing, its application across generations becomes indeterminate. Incomplete emissions data and opaque causal pathways reduce the effectiveness of backward-looking approaches and may generate moral impasses rather than constructive direction. A strict focus on historical responsibility may also limit Africa’s developmental prospects, creating new forms of future injustice.
In response, the thesis advances the concept of Forward-Looking Climate Justice (F-LCJ), grounded in the idea that the future’s moral significance lies not in the radical repair of earlier harms but in the prevention of foreseeable suffering. This outlook shifts the ethical field from compensation towards stewardship, anticipatory agency, and shared responsibility for intergenerational life conditions. It accommodates Africa’s demographic trajectory, ecological exposure, and development priorities. It also affirms the continent’s right to a fair portion of the remaining carbon budget while grounding corresponding responsibilities in its projected emissions path and technological choices.
Two distributive principles anchor this framework. The first, the per-capita emissions principle, asserts equal moral entitlement to the atmospheric commons, supporting Africa’s claim to an equitable share of the remaining carbon space while constraining excessive emissions from historically high-emitting states. The second, the future developmental right, recognizes Africa’s legitimate claim to sustainable industrialization and technological progress. These principles prevent intergenerational duties from imposing undue burdens on structurally vulnerable populations.
The thesis then turns to African philosophical resources, especially ubuntu, to enrich the conceptual foundation of forward-looking climate justice. Ubuntu rejects the individualist assumptions of many Western distributive theories, proposing instead a relational conception of personhood grounded in mutual care. In this vision, temporal relations are interwoven, linking the living, the dead, and the unborn in a continuous moral community. Climate responsibility is thus framed not as a response to rights claims by future individuals but as relational stewardship: the sustained maintenance of ecological and social conditions that enable life across generations.
Integrating ubuntu with the distributive principles of F-LCJ, the thesis proposes a hybrid tool of climate justice tailored to Africa’s historical situation, developmental aspirations, and intellectual heritage. This tool positions Africa as a normative actor capable of contributing new ethical concepts for sustainability and planetary care.
In conclusion, the thesis maintains that Africa’s experience. marked by marginal emissions, vulnerability, and colonial exploitation, need not confine it to a backward-looking moral stance. These conditions can instead ground a forward-oriented ethical vision shaped by ubuntu’s relational ontology and articulated through rigorous normative principles. Such a vision enables Africa to pursue climate justice more effectively while offering indigenous philosophical insights to global debates on sustainability. The broader task is to cultivate a moral imagination that views justice not merely as the correction of past wrongs but as the ongoing, collective work of safeguarding the conditions under which human and ecological life can flourish across generations.
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