Climate justice is at a turning point. While some of the world's largest emitters are stepping back from climate commitments, communities least responsible for climate change are suffering its most severe consequences. These impacts often intersect with or exacerbate existing conflicts, violence, and socio-economic or political marginalisation, further intensifying vulnerabilities of local populations.

Two new studies from the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation – part of a larger project with the Global Learning Hub for Transitional Justice and Reconciliation – explore how the application of transformative transitional justice can offer 'outside the box' readings of local climate actions, thereby harnessing their potential for more responsive climate justice. This applies both to community-led climate action and entry points in global climate policy architectures.

Traditionally, transitional justice addresses legacies of serious human rights violations through the four interconnected pillars of truth telling, reparations, accountability, and guarantees of non-recurrence. Transformative approaches broaden this framework by strengthening the agency of affected communities and tackling the root causes of violence and inequality. Viewed through this lens, the research suggests an understanding of climate justice as an integrated practice comprising the four transitional justice pillars, while seeking to combine backward- and forward-looking measures in an attempt to mitigate and prevent future climate harms.