Safeguarding Against Environmental Injustice: 1.5°C Scenarios, Negative Emissions, and Unintended Consequences

Scenarios for limiting warming below 1.5°C require both drastic emissions reductions measures and the large-scale deployment of negative emissions technologies. Both of these measures carry the potential for major unintended consequences, particularly as we do not yet understand the full implications of negative emissions technologies. Historically, the unintended consequences of climate mitigation efforts have disproportionately been borne by already marginalised communities, and hence there is a potential for the unintended consequences of measures taken to limit warming below 1.5°C to result in environmental injustice. This article argues that environmental and climate justice concerns need to be accounted for in the design of policy measures for keeping warming below 1.5°C, and outlines policy guidance for safeguarding against unintended consequences.