Our planet is already becoming uninhabitable. The timeframe left to reverse this process might not be sufficient to prevent biodiversity loss, species extinction, land disappearance, and refugee/exile-like situations in the context of environmental disruptions. Are our democracies equipped with principles and legal/political categories able to navigate such an eco-nihilism era? Do they have the necessary instruments to prevent authoritarian regimes’ “faster solutions” from being preferred to manage climate emergencies? This book proposal aims to create a new lexicon, including new legal/political categories for tackling current and future challenges deriving from climate change. It does so through the construction of a planetary contract informed by environmental justice principles for equally distributing scarce resources, protecting the most vulnerable groups, and governing climate-induced migration and displacement as concrete examples of structural phenomena able to challenge our Western lexicon and forms of power. Above all, this book proposal explores novel legal and political avenues within our future democracies while rethinking/decolonizing traditional categories of citizenship, sovereignty, and refugeehood. By adopting eco-nihilism as a critical standpoint, this book proposal is among the few to overcome emotional resistance in accepting the idea that our planet is already turning uninhabitable and exploring what the political and legal implications may be for our lives and communities.
Francesca Rosignoli has been a postdoctoral fellow at the Public Law Department of University Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona (Spain). Her current research investigates climate-induced migration from the EU and migration from a gender perspective.