Mobilizing Hope for Climate Justice, Activism, and Technology Development

Transforming the global economy’s energy basis from its longstanding dependence on fossil fuels to a system based on renewable sources is an immense and urgent undertaking. In 2024, world GDP exceeded $111 trillion, and according to the International Energy Agency, more than 80 percent of this economic activity is still powered by fossil fuels. This dependence must be reduced rapidly to limit the rise in global mean temperature to 1.5°C or, at most, 2°C. Meeting the 1.5°C target requires achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, while a 2°C pathway allows only a few additional decades. By way of comparison, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, it took roughly a century for coal to surpass traditional biomass as the favored mode of energy consumption. Today, however, the pace of transition to renewable energy remains far slower than climate targets demand. This paper draws on the arguments I make in Mobilizing Hope to discuss how philosophers should theorize climate justice in the present context, why activism is especially important in the effort to achieve net-zero emissions, why forms of technology that could supplement mitigation should be researched, and some of the moral considerations such technology raises.