Abstract:
This presentation will track the rise of climate emergency claim making as a global discourse and take stock of the criticisms from those who argue that the emergency frame should be abandoned because it will necessarily undermine democracy. Against these critics, I offer an alternative and more sympathetic democratic critique of the grammar of climate emergency claim making, and then pose and critically exploring two questions that have been ignored by the critics: 1) what might happen to liberal democracy if the climate emergency movement fails in its demands upon the state? 2) Could the climate emergency movement be a potential saviour of democracy insofar as it succeeds in building legitimacy for measures that would safeguard the fundamental socio-ecological conditions for the survival of democratic states? As to the former, I offer a scenario showing how liberal democracy might unravel via a fiscal crisis of states. As to the latter, I reflect on the diminishing window of opportunity for climate emergency claim-making to resonate with audiences in ways that might instil hope that disaster can be averted if we act quickly.