Rights of Nature in times of climate crisis: Opportunity or obstacle?

During the last decades, Rights of Nature have become an essential legal device for promoting environmental protection and therefore directly contribute to the implementation of SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 13 (Climate action) as well as the Horizon Europe EU Missions 1 and 3. While there has been research on Rights of Nature within legal studies, political ecology, and political science, there is still a gap within environmental philosophy regarding this topic. In RONCLIM, I explore the Rights of Nature from a philosophical perspective and with a particular focus on the tensions between the Global South and the Global North and between Rights of Nature and the climate crisis. In the first year, I analyse the opportunities and risks associated with the construction of Rights of Nature based on ontologies from the Global South and the Global North. Based on this research, I develop an ontological framework that can explain how Rights of Nature are embedded in different ontologies and how translation between them can be assessed. In the second year, I study the case of the Mar Menor and investigate whether Rights of Nature could increase the resilience of ecosystems and to what extent they could be used against the energy transition by “not-in-my-backyard” activists. This study results in a normative framework that can help law- and policymakers to navigate the overlaps and tensions between Rights of Nature and climate legislation.The Kassel Institute for Sustainability is the ideal host for RONCLIM as it has expertise in both Rights of Nature and policy-making and provides the necessary infrastructure for disseminating the research findings to both academic and non-academic audiences. In this way, RONCLIM will not only contribute to the academic debate, but also influence the public discourse on this topic and promote policy and legal action to protect nature and address the climate crisis.