Henry Shue's Basic Rights and Climate Justice: Moral Thresholds, Responsibility, and Global Justice
Climate change poses one of the most profound moral challenges of the contemporary world, not merely as an environmental crisis but as a fundamental injustice that threatens the basic conditions of human life. This article examines Henry Shue's theory of basic rights as a compelling normative framework for climate justice. Shue argues that certain rights particularly subsistence and security rights are morally basic because they constitute the necessary preconditions for the enjoyment of all other rights. The article contends that climate change systematically violates these basic rights by undermining access to food, water, shelter, and physical security, especially among already vulnerable populations in the Global South. By emphasizing moral thresholds and the principle that no one should be forced to sacrifice their basic rights for the luxury or convenience of others, Shue's approach challenges utilitarian and market-based climate policies that permit preventable harm. The analysis further explores Shue's account of responsibility, highlighting the ethical significance of historical emissions, differential capacity to respond, and the foreseeability of climaterelated harms. In addition, the article extends Shue's framework to questions of intergenerational justice, arguing that present patterns of excessive emissions unjustly endanger the basic rights of future persons. By situating Shue's theory in dialogue with contemporary climate justice debates on mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage, the article demonstrates the enduring relevance of basic rights as a moral foundation for global climate governance. Ultimately, it argues that climate change should be understood as a basic rights emergency requiring urgent, coordinated, and justiceoriented action.
Keywords: Basic rights; climate justice; subsistence; moral responsibility; intergenerational justice