Legitimacy and procedural justice: how might stratospheric aerosol injection function in the public interest?

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https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-529885/v1

Legitimacy and procedural justice: how might stratospheric aerosol injection function in the public interest?

Marco Grasso

University of Milan-Bicocca Faculty of Sociology: Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale

Abstract

The success of stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) in limiting global heating requires the inclusion and maintenance of the political ideals of legitimacy and procedural justice. Without them, the prospects are slim that this institution can be developed and operated in the public interest in such a way that it will protect and promote social well-being by minimising climate-related harm.

Long term legitimacy and procedural justice are crucial to several sensitive features of SAI. They relate to openness, inclusivity and independence, in dealing both with external issues of concern to stakeholders representing the general public and with internal issues concerning agents directly involved in SAI.

This article begins by outlining notions of legitimacy and procedural justice, and the criteria appropriate for SAI. Then it investigates how the moral indications provided by the related standards might ensure that SAI is not distorted in such ways that it serves the selfish interests of private parties. Finally, the article outlines two governance recommendations for ensuring that legitimacy and procedural justice in SAI are achieved and maintained over time, so that it can work continuously in the public interest.

Conclusions

This article puts forward a way to provide SAI with the long-term legitimacy and procedural justice it needs if it is to increase its capacity to operate in the public interest. To this end, the article first develops suitable criteria of legitimacy and procedural justice; it then goes on to investigate the moral indications provided by the related standards – epistemically accessible proxies of criteria; finally, it outlines two governance recommendations that will help ensure the achievement and maintenance of the legitimate and procedurally just functioning of SAI in the public interest.

It seems finally worth underlining that the establishment of legitimate and procedurally just SAI would both make it more effective as an institution and able to work in the public interest than could be achieved by any form of imposition, however great our trust in the vision of politicians, or in the exemplary power of scientific evidence. In the current fragmented and multipolar international climate order, all climate action needs to operate in a polycentric, quasi-anarchic system, through careful, gradual design and re-design of the relevant institutions. This especially applies to SAI, as it significantly interferes with vested interests, influences patterns of well-being across states, peoples, and generations, and modifies the flow of huge amounts of resources, not least financial ones. The inclusion and maintenance of legitimacy and procedural justice in SAI would shape converging preferences among agents, stakeholders and political representatives in support of this institution, even those coming from differing political traditions and subject to different political constraints. Ultimately, therefore, the likelihood that SAI would work in the best interests of the public would be significantly enhanced.