Immanuel Kant did not foresee the presently unfolding crisis of climate disruption, yet his practical philosophy provides valuable guidance for coping with it. Particularly relevant are Kant's conceptions of morally permissible coercion, the social contract, and perpetual international peace, as well as his ideal of the statesman. Drawing from these theoretical resources, one can formulate principles requiring agents wielding political power to prohibit or regulate any forms of political economy that foreseeably generate or aggravate climate disruption or obstruct efforts to mitigate it. Kant died in 1804, well before the emergence of industrial capitalism and modern economic globalization, and he wrote little about economics. John Rawls's late-20th-century political philosophy builds upon Kant's work in significant ways and addresses questions of justice relevant to modern political economies, but does not address climate disruption. I argue that broadly Kantian principles of climate justice can valuably supplement both Rawls's conception of a just democratic society and his conception of the basic principles of a just international order, the Law of Peoples.
