A normative ethical framework in climate change

Abstract

The article spells out four domains of international distributive justice and the consequent criteria of equity, the purpose being to identify a pluralistic normative ethical framework for climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Justice and equity should play a major role in favouring collective action against climate change, because the more the various dimensions of such action are just, the more any international climate initiative is feasible in principle. As far as mitigation is concerned, the definition of a just initial allocation of endowments focuses on the criterion of differentiated equality, taking account of undeserved inequalities as suggested by Rawls' theory of justice as fairness. With regard to the subsequent exchange of endowments, the Pareto principle, supplemented by the envy-freeness one, is a viable option. Possibly a sound reference for the just financing of adaptation activities is the criterion of differentiated historical responsibility, backed by Rawls' theory of justice as fairness. As regards the allocation of adaptation resources, the criterion of lack of human security, as substantiated in Sen's capability approach, seems promising.

Examining equity: A multidimensional framework for assessing equity in payments for ecosystem services

“…Common usage defines justice in terms of rights: "The quality of being (morally) just or righteous…conformity (of an action or thing) to moral right, or to reason, truth, or fact" (OED, 2010). By contrast, equity is comparative; it is principally concerned with relationships between people, and with their relative circumstances (Grasso, 2007).…”

“…Our emphasis on the local scale complements the important body of literature that examines equity and justice with respect to global climate regimes (e.g. Grasso, 2007;Heyward, 2007;Klinsky and Dowlatabadi, 2009). These works focus on nation-states as the locus of concern, with limited attention to sub-national groups, and still less to the local communities where climate change impacts are felt.…”

Defining transformative climate science to address high-end climate change

“…A central component in the development of TCS is equity-both between generations (intergenerational equity) and in every generation (intragenerational equity) and both in terms of distributive equity and procedural equity (Grasso 2007). Conventional methods face many practical limitations to the inclusion of plural sources of equity considerations in climate assessments and thus more inclusive, procedural, and context-based approaches are required (Grasso and Sachhi 2015)-so as to ensure also the accountability of both procedures and outcomes of the assessments.…”

Climate Change and Sinking Ethical Endeavours

“…Moreover, capacity building initiative is introduced to enhance the capacity of countries, especially developing countries, LDCs and SIDs. 9 Art.10 talks about Global Stocktake. This implies that an overall collective progress would be examined every five years, starting from 2024, or otherwise as decided by CMA.…”