The Dilemma of Dual Vulnerability in the Pursuit of Climate Justice
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 17831752 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Renato Matheus Mendes Fakhoury (0000-0001-5309-6331, University of Massachusetts Lowell, corresponding author), Renato Fakhoury (corresponding author), Adam B Lerner (0000-0002-6715-3197, University of Massachusetts Lowell), Josh Hayes (0000-0002-4017-4545, University of Massachusetts Lowell) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Global Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2634-3797 • E-ISSN: 2634-3797 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/isagsq/ksag054 |
| OpenAlex | W7154473363 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 32 |
Climate change represents a profound theoretical challenge for IR and adjacent disciplines. It consists simultaneously of a series of disasters, in need of repair and redress, and a creeping unjust structural condition—a new normal with growing pernicious effects that transcend borders, recur over time, and disproportionately burden marginalized communities. Though scholars have developed frameworks for assessing both the episodic and structural aspects of climate change, they have failed to grasp their entangled, compounding effects. To address this gap, we theorize dual vulnerability to climate change as a unique position in debates over climate justice. We do so by drawing on Iris Marion Young’s dichotomy between interactional and structural injustice, but integrating her models to highlight how distinct forms of injustice reinforce and compound each other. The dually vulnerable, we argue, are not merely victims of catastrophic climate events, but also the most disadvantaged by the uneven global playing field climate change creates. The concept of dual vulnerability contributes to IR by highlighting the complex entanglement of discrete environmental damages and structural climate injustice, as well as how the dually vulnerable face a temporal challenge of simultaneously pursuing backward-facing compensation and forward-facing collective reparative action. To highlight our concept’s utility, we apply it to analysis of the UNFCCC’s recently created Loss and Damage Fund
Climate change · Climate justice · Damages · Dilemma · Economic Justice · Injustice · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration · Environmental law and policy
Responsibility and Global Justice
Structural Injustice and Individual Responsibility
Politics of attributing extreme events and disasters to climate change
Framing Climate Change Loss and Damage in UNFCCC Negotiations
Climate change and the duties of the advantaged
Theorizing unpredictability in international politics
The fifth debate and the emergence of complex international relations theory
Technocratic norms, political culture and climate change governance
Beyond dichotomies
The paradox of international reparations
Power concedes nothing without a demand
Cognitive Entanglement and Individual Responsibility for Structural Injustice
Responsibility for climate justice
Backward-looking reparations and structural injustice
Troubling the spatial politics of Green New Deals
The unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality
Inclusive higher education governance
Climate change, Covid-19, and the co-production of injustices
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |