The Urgent and Practical Need To Turn up the Volume on The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change Donald A. Brown Scholar In Residence and Professor Widener.

Slides:



Advertisements
Similar presentations
1 Presentation by South Africa to AWG2 Initial views on ‘how to determine further emission limitation and reduction commitments’ AD HOC WORKING GROUP ON.
Advertisements

Review of Solar Cities activities: CO 2 balances in cities Chiel Boonstra.
Carbon Emissions. Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration Atmospheric increase = Emissions from fossil fuels + Net emissions from changes in land use.
Moving forward from Copenhagen: avenues for cooperation and action Yvo de Boer Executive Secretary UNFCCC.
Climate change, disasters and the Philippines: Issues and Imperatives for the 2015 Paris Agreement Antonio G.M. La Viña, JSD Philippines.
5/16/ Identifying Outcomes that Promote the Interests of Developing Countries at COP18 Vicente Paolo Yu III ACP House, Brussels 7 November 2012.
THEORIES OF JUSTICE: APPLICATION WITHIN THE INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE REGIME Dr Rowena Maguire and Bridget Lewis.
ROADMAP FOR FINALISING SOUTH AFRICA’S INTENDED NATIONALLY DETERMINED CONTRIBUTION PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE MARCH 2015.
Climate Change - International Efforts. Direct Observation of Climate Change Source: IPCC 4AR.
Discussion (1) Economic forces driving industrial development and environmental degradation (2) Scientific recognition and measurement of pollution (Who.
Fossil Fuel Economy Current economic system is based on the extensive use of fossil fuels in production 87% 87% of world energy production – Petroleum:
Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and Civil Engineering Dr Stuart Parkinson
Basic Climate Change Science, Human Response and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Prepared for the National Workshop.
Kyoto Protocol and Beyond
International Climate Change Agreements. The Kyoto Protocol Protocol: a set of rules or guidelines agreed to by multiple parties Negotiated in 1997 by.
Global Warming & the Kyoto Protocols. The topic of global warming inspires heated debates among world leaders. The topic of global warming inspires heated.
International cooperation Part IV. The UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol Session 7.
Title written in CAPITAL letters, broken into 2 lines, if it fits with the length of the words Optional: Cover this area with photo. Proportions are approx.
An overview of the strategy to advance the cause for developing countries G77+ China and Africa National Consultative Seminar on climate change Cape town,
Policies Against Global Warming
Should the U.S. ratify it? Daniela Sol 21 Oct PROTOCOL.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: An Overview Ko Barrett Deputy Director NOAA Climate Program Office 7 February
Brief Overview of Legal Framework: UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol M.J.Mace Climate Change and Energy Programme, FIELD LDC Workshop Nairobi, Kenya 2-3 November.
SHIFTING POWERS AND INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE NORMS Dr Rowena Maguire.
India’s INDC: Renewable Energy and the Pathway to Paris Sudatta Ray Junior Research Associate Council on Energy, Environment and Water Climate Day: Negotiating.
Tuesday’s deal between US/China US: 26-28% reduction from 2005 levels by 2025 China: stop growth of emissions by 2030 plus 20% renewables Are these real.
Climate Change: Responses By Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), Dhaka, Bangladesh 8-9 April 2008 Dhaka.
EU Climate Action EU – Central Asia Working Group on
Presentation title Current and emerging data needs of the global climate change regime - requirements/guidelines for data reporting - the review/verification.
Historical responsibility as a guide to future action in climate change Martin Khor, Executive Director, South Centre Presentation made in Bonn on 4 June.
CE 401 Climate Change Science and Engineering poster presentations 28 February 2012 exam on first half of class: review sessions: today 6pm Sloan.
COP19 Outcomes : A Developing Country’s Perspective - Vositha Wijenayake Outreach and Advocacy Co-ordinator CANSA.
SECTION IV: GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF STEPS TAKEN OR ENVISAGED BY NON-ANNEX I PARTY TO IMPLEMENT THE CONVENTION Workshop on the Use of the Guidelines for.
Margaret Mukahanana Sangarwe. SHARED VISION FOR LONG TERM COOPERATIVE ACTION There was a shared vision in paragraphs 1-7 of the Cancun Decision The Cancun.
Positions of International Players on Climate Change.
1 All Island Environmental Health Forum Tomorrow’s Environmental Health Developments in the International Climate Change Agenda Owen Ryan Department of.
Outline of the Paper Introduction
Kyoto Protocol IDC3O3 Ms. Nguyen.
Overview on CDM By Ann Gordon Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment 14 th July 2011.
Global responses post Kyoto Protocol Kenzo Motohashi James Todd.
The Green Climate Fund: Challenges and Opportunities Some thoughts on how the Green Climate Fund could close the Energy Justice gap Martin Hiller, Energy.
The Kyoto Protocol’s Flexibility Mechanisms. Major Issues in Implementing Flex Mechs Supplementarity Additionality – Baselines – Additionality – Leakage.
THE GLOBAL POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE By Emil Salim Member of the President’s Council of Advisors Bali, 13 November 2007
Introduction to International Climate Change Law Prof. Tracy Hester Environmental Law Fall 2015 Houston, Texas October 13, 2015.
International Policy Cooperation in the Arctic Scott Barrett Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.
Conference of European Churches EU on the way to the UN climate change conference in Paris Peter Pavlovic Conference of European Churches.
Soobin Kang Second Committee Intern.  Issues relating to economic growth and development - macroeconomic policy questions including international trade,
Sustainable Development: Cooperation in FEALAC Sustainable Development: Cooperation in FEALAC October ,200 7 Economy and Society WG Delegation of Japan.
Mitigation of Global Climate Change. Review of last lecture Cradles of civilization. Were the ancient people stupid? Ancient view of nature Industry revolution:
SCIENCE DOESN’T MATTER Inside the UN Global Climate Negotiations
Click to edit Master title style Click to edit Master subtitle style The Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre (PICCC) is a joint venture between.
World Climate: Negotiate a Global Climate Agreement.
Brief Overview of Legal Framework: UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol M.J.Mace Climate Change and Energy Programme, FIELD LDC Workshop Montreal Canada November.
Climate Change and Forestry —Possible Legal and Policy Instruments to Address Potential Effects of Forest Carbon Offsets Ding Zhi (Department of Law of.
World Regional Geography Unit I: Introduction to World Regional Geography Lesson 4: Solutions to Global Warming Debate.
Equity and Global Climate Change Developing Countries and the Climate Change Challenge Alistair Maclean, Australian Embassy.
Anthropogenic Radiative Forcing. Global Mean Surface Air Temperature.
The Global Politics of Climate Change Dr Daniel Bray La Trobe University.
Climate Action Elina Bardram, DG Climate Action
Pan Xunzhang Understanding the fairness of countries’ (I)NDCs under the Paris Agreement goals Pan Xunzhang Academy of Chinese.
Introduction to International Climate Change Law
Content Introduction International instruments governing climate change. Institutional & Legal Framework for Environmental Protection Investment opportunities.
“CoP-22 Global Climate Conference”
The Paris Agreement and CDR/NETs
Global Climate Change Alliance: Intra-ACP Programme
By Peters, et al TYSON METCALF ECON 5430
Climate Change: Towards COP 21
2/16/2019   Identifying Outcomes that Promote the Interests of Developing Countries at COP18 Vicente Paolo Yu III ACP House, Brussels 7 November 2012  
Kyoto Protocol.
Enhanced transparency framework and examples of flexibilities
Presentation transcript:

The Urgent and Practical Need To Turn up the Volume on The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change Donald A. Brown Scholar In Residence and Professor Widener University School Of Law

Objectives of Presentation There are features of climate change unlike any other environmental issue, that scream for attention as seeing it as a moral problem. Neither the US media nor most environmental NGOs groups are bringing to the attention of the public the ethical, justice, and fairness issues of climate change.

Goals of Presentation Governments cannot think clearly about policy options until they think clearly about the ethical issues The strongest arguments made against the five most frequent arguments made against climate policies are arguments based upon ethics and justice We need to call on the US government (federal and state) and all governments to expressly respond to the ethical issues raised by various climate policy.

Why are ethical questions more salient at the global scale? This here Makes this happen here. Questions of: Damage Responsibility: Distributive Justice?; Welfare Maximization? Procedural Justice? Human Rights?

The Consequences Are Potentially Catastrophic Why are ethical questions more salient at the global scale?

US GHG Emissions Also Are Contributing To Flooding Around the World

US GHG Emissions Also Are Contributing To Loss of Food Supply

Glacier Dependent Rivers in Asia

Vulnerability to Drought: Exposure + Sensitivity Frequency Mortality

Government’s interests do not coincide with those harmed by the emission of greenhouse gases* In general, the U.S. government represents the interest of its citizens only, not the interests of others! Who represents these people ? *responsible for climate change These people cant petition their government for protection

271 Gigatonnes left for the entire world

280 ppm CO2, approximate 10, 000 year level before industrial revolution 400 ppm CO2 now 450 ppm CO2, 50 % chance > 2 deg C China USA Australia Brazil India Canada France Germany Russia Other EU Developing Countries The Equity Question : Who gets to fill the rest of the atmospheric bathtub given limited remaining space to limit atmospheric GHG concentrations to safe levels, different historical and per capita emissions that have filled the bathtub to current levels, and the needs of poor countries to grow economically. The Justice Question : What levels of GHGs will be permitted in the bathtub given that the higher the levels: (a) the greater the harms to those countries and millions of poor people that have done little to fill the bathtub, and (b) the greater the threat of rapid, abrupt, potentially catastrophic climate change. The atmosphere is like a bathtub: a space with a limited volume Donald A. Brown, Scholar In Residence and Professor, Widener University Law School, Some nations filled this space much more than others Above this line very dangerous climate change

Lima Call to Action Reiterates its invitation to all Parties to communicate their intended nationally determined contributions well in advance of the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (by the first quarter of 2015 by those Parties ready to do so) in a manner that facilitates the clarity, transparency and understanding of the intended nationally determined contributions;

Lima Decision Agrees that the information to be provided by Parties communicating their intended nationally determined contributions, in order to facilitate clarity, transparency and understanding, may include, as appropriate, inter alia, quantifiable information on the reference point (including, as appropriate, a base year), time frames and/or periods for implementation, scope and coverage, planning processes, assumptions and methodological approaches including those for estimating and accounting for anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and, as appropriate, removals, and how the Party considers that its intended nationally determined contribution is fair and ambitious, in light of its national circumstances, and how it contributes towards achieving the objective of the Convention as set out in its Article 2;

Issues on the Paris Agenda More ambition from nations to close the ambition gap, whether nations will take their responsibility to reduce their emissions based upon equity seriously. Whether all, some, or developed nations will accept a legally binding target Funding for adaptation, where will the $100 billion needed for least developed nations be based upon secure, predictable funding Whether a loss and damages fund will be created Whether 2 degree C warming limit will remain or whether 1.5 degree target replace current agreement. Will Kyoto trading mechanisms survive? New market mechanism? Issues surrounding green fund, adaptation fund. Issues surrounding REDD and tech transfer

Twenty-Five Year Attack on Proposed US Climate Policies In Which the Press and Many US NGOs Have Ignored the Strong Ethical Response Arguments Cost Too Much Destroy jobs or specific industries Cost-Benefit The US Should Not To Do Anything Until Other Countries Like China Act Not Sufficient Scientific Support For Action

The major ethical issues The atmospheric stabilization goal Any nation’s or government’s fair share of safe global emissions Who should pay for adaptation costs Who has responsibility for losses and damages. The ethical obligations of subnational governments, organizations, entities, and individuals to stop emitting ghgs

The need for applied ethics All claims about what should be done about environmental issues already have an implicit factual claim and an implicit normative claim. Most academic environmental ethics has been focused on theoretical distinctions such as how to ground a non-anthropocentric basis for protecting the environment. We need an applied climate ethics There is a huge need to help citizens and policy makers unpack the implicit normative claims in arguments about environmental policy that are often hidden in technical language.

An Applied Ethics An applied environmental ethics group’s main function would be to spot ethical issues raised by various claims Get policy makers to understand that one not need to agree on what perfect justice requires to make progress on ethics and justice. The IPCC recent work on ethics and equity is an interesting example.

What DO We Actually Know About How Nations Have Considered or Ignored Ethics and Justice National Climate Justice Research Project on Ethics and Justice in Formulating National Climate Change Policies

What Have We Learned All Governments are relying in part on economic self-interest rather than global responsibilities No nation has explained how its commitment quantitatively links to an atmospheric carbon budget or an equity framework. Some nations have acknowledged that their commitments needs to achieve a 2 0 C budget and be based upon equity but don’t describe how their target accomplishes this goal

How do we get the US media to cover?: The ethical issues already at the center of international climate negotiations; All nations must reduce their ghg emissions to their fair share of safe global emissions regardless of what other nations do; IPCC conclusions on ethics and equity in Working Group III The unacceptable ethical responses to arguments against US climate policies that have been made for 20 years.

We must demand: That US and all governments respond expressly to the ethical issues such as: – What atmospheric stabilization goal does your emissions goal seek to achieve? – How did you consider fairness in setting your emissions reduction percentage goal? – How does your climate policy lead to emissions reductions in the short- medium- and long –term to prevent catastrophic harms to others – On what ethical basis can you claim that high-emitting governments and individuals have no responsibility to pay for adaptation, harms, and damages to vulnerable poor people around the world.

Two web sites Ethicsandclimate.org (150 articles on ethics and climate) Nationalclimatejustice.org (detailed analysis of the extent to which ethics and justice have been taken into account in setting climate policy in Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Equator, Germany, Ghana, India, Japan, Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Malawi, Mauritius, Marshall Islands, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, USA, Zimbabwe)

Contact Information Donald A. Brown Scholar In Residence and Professor, Widener University School of Law Part-time Professor, Nanjing University Of Information Science and Technology Ethicsandclimte.org