Summary

The impacts of climate change are already being experienced around the world, but greenhouse gasses continue to be released at an increasing rate. Despite their numerous promises and ambitions, governments of most countries are failing to find and implement adequately far-reaching policies. The structural features of liberal democratic states appear to be particularly ill-suited to tackling this global wicked problem. At the same time, democracy is associated in places with regimes that have “weaponized” it as an excuse for both environmental and social exploitation. Is democracy part of the problem and not the solution? Responses to this question depend upon the way that democracy is imagined. Political life corresponds to a background “imaginary” that informs democratic institutions and expectations. Different imaginaries depart from liberal democracy to offer political alternatives in a climate changing world. Seven different imaginaries of green democracy can be discerned: Green Epistocracy places decisions more firmly in the hands of experts. Green Representative Democracy calls for better representation of nonhuman nature, future generations, and marginalized communities. In Global Green Democracy, global climate governance is made more accountable whereas Local Green Democracy promotes ecopolitical prefiguration. Green Deliberative Democracy demands the sustained and inclusive deliberation between participants from diverse backgrounds. Green Agonistic Democracy celebrates political disagreement over climate change. Decolonized Green Democracy asks for an “ontological adjustment” of democracy to include awareness of different traditions and approaches and the limits of any particular political imaginary. These imaginaries do not necessarily contradict or complement each other, although there may be overlaps and tensions between them; they rather offer distinct expectations and pathways for democracy in the context of climate change.