Ethics and International Affairs 26 (4):423-443 (2012)
Authors |
|
Abstract |
At the United Nations climate change conference in 2011, parties decided to launch the “Durban Platform” to work towards a new long-term climate agreement. The decision was notable for the absence of any reference to “equity”, a prominent principle in all previous major climate agreements. Wealthy countries resisted the inclusion of equity on the grounds that the term had become too closely yoked to developing countries’ favored conception of equity. This conception, according to wealthy countries, exempts developing countries from making commitments that are stringent enough for the collective effort needed to avoid dangerous climate change. In circumstances where even mentioning the term equity has become problematic, a critical question is whether scope for a fair agreement is being squeezed out of negotiations. To address this question we set out a conceptual framework for normative theorizing about fairness in international negotiations, accompanied by a set of minimal standards of fairness and plausible feasibility constraints for sharing the global climate change mitigation effort. We argue that a fair and feasible agreement may be reached by (i) reforming the current binary approach to differentiating developed and developing country groups, in tandem with (ii) introducing a more principled approach to differentiating the mitigation commitments of individual countries. These two priorities may provide the basis for a principled bargain between developed and developing countries that safeguards the opportunity to avoid dangerous climate change without sacrificing widely acceptable conceptions of equity.
|
Keywords | Climate ethics Feasibility Political philosophy |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1017/s0892679412000603 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Climate Change and the Duties of the Advantaged.Simon Caney - 2010 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 13 (1):203-228.
View all 13 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Climate Contributions and the Paris Agreement: Fairness and Equity in a Bottom-Up Architecture.Nicholas Chan - 2016 - Ethics and International Affairs 30 (3):291-301.
Similar books and articles
Implementing Climate Equity: The Case of Europe.Paul G. Harris - 2008 - Journal of Global Ethics 4 (2):121 – 140.
On the Concept of Climate Debt: Its Moral and Political Value.Jonathan Pickering & Christian Barry - 2012 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 15 (5):667-685.
Subsistence Versus Sustainable Emissions? Equity and Climate Change.Jay Odenbaugh - 2010 - Environmental Philosophy 7 (1):1-15.
Global Justice and Global Climate Change: A Discussion of the Relationship.Duane Windsor - 2009 - Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society 20:23-34.
Energy Charter Treaty's Investor Protection Provisions: Potential to Foster Solutions to Global Warming and Promote Sustainable Development.Edna Sussman - manuscript
Ethical Issues in Mitigation of Climate Change: The Option of Reduced Meat Production and Consumption. [REVIEW]Anders Nordgren - 2012 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 25 (4):563-584.
Scientization: Putting Global Climate Change on the Scientific Agenda and the Role of the IPCC. [REVIEW]Sarina Keller - 2010 - Poiesis and Praxis 7 (3):197-209.
Justice in the Greenhouse: Climate Change and the Idea of Fairness.Steve Vanderheiden - 2003 - Social Philosophy Today 19:89-101.
Mitigation/Adaptation and Health: Health Policymaking in the Global Response to Climate Change and Implications for Other Upstream Determinants.Lindsay F. Wiley - 2010 - Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 38 (3):629-639.
Individual Responsibility for Climate Change.Melany Banks - 2013 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 51 (1):42-66.
The Ethics of Burden-Sharing in the Global Greenhouse. E. Wesley & F. Peterson - 1999 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 11 (3):167-196.
Greenhouse Development Rights: A Proposal for a Fair Global Climate Treaty.Paul Baer, Tom Athanasiou, Sivan Kartha & Eric Kemp-Benedict - 2009 - Ethics, Place and Environment 12 (3):267-281.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2012-10-17
Total views
823 ( #8,538 of 2,508,076 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
38 ( #22,987 of 2,508,076 )
2012-10-17
Total views
823 ( #8,538 of 2,508,076 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
38 ( #22,987 of 2,508,076 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads