Fighting climate change is an issue of changing politics, technology, and consumer behavior. Equally important to the transformation of the world, however, are global ethics.

What are the ethical arguments for the allotment of emission reductions globally? Who should pay for the mitigation costs? How should technology transfer be organized so as to be ethically correct? To answer these questions, GlobalFOCUS has engaged both scientists and philosophers to apply their skills to the problems at hand.

Summary:

The Global Ethics and Climate Change report examines the ethical aspects of man-made climate change and efforts to reverse the trend. It takes its point of departure in the knowledge that, as the U.N.’s climate panel (IPCC) stated, to avoid a catastrophic 2° C increase in worldwide temperature, the global community must reduce our GHG emissions by 85%. Our report argues that it is unreasonable to assume that all countries can make this reduction equally. The poorest countries, where only a fraction of the population has access to basic needs like electricity, should not and cannot be expect to be able to cut their GHG emissions as efficiently as the richest countries. Thus, a larger burden must be placed upon the wealthier countries to shoulder more of the GHG emission cuts.

Ethical principles are demanding and politically difficult to popularize. The report will propose changes that will demand personal sacrifices from many of us. Therefore, it is crucial that the current awareness on climate change be mobilized into political action.

Fundamental solutions need to be implemented. These solutions will focus on things such as:

• The expansion of private-use automobiles

• Commercial air travel

• Household electricity consumption

The strongest policy recommendation resulting from this report is the installation of a revenue-neutral carbon tax.



For more infomation about this report, please click here.

Project Leader: Karim jebari, Contact info: karim.jebari[at]globalfocus.net