Challenging the European Climate Debate: Can Universal Climate Justice and Economics be Reconciled with Particularistic Politics?

Abstract

Researchers from various disciplines have built impressive but distinct compendia on climate change; the defining challenge for humanity. In the spirit of Lord Dahrendorf, this paper represents the output of interdisciplinary collaboration and integrates state-of-the-art academic expertise from the fields of philosophy, economics and governance. Our focus is on Europe, which is widely perceived as a leader in climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, leadership weakness on climate over recent years, largely due to recession and political vacillation, is eroding this perception. What is needed is a firm justification for strong climate action, acknowledgement of the available tools, awareness of the reasons for our failures to date, and a realistic, but goal-oriented strategy for an integrated climate policy. We therefore present current normative insights from climate justice research highlighting the need to make institutions responsive to those most vulnerable; we discuss the economics of the transition to a low-carbon economy, pointing to key policy instruments and post-2020 climate targets for the EU; we contrast the normative and quantitative synoptic principles with the particularistic implementation schemes and politics of (not) implementing measures on the ground; and we suggest a careful coordination of European climate policies with acute challenges that could increase both climate justice and political feasibility. Policy Implications• Climate justice demonstrates that action on climate change is a moral imperative.• Modern public economics provides a rich framework for examining the climate change problem through the lens of imperfect economies with policy for market failures.• Politics remain inadequate, as specific implementation schemes follow rationales that are decoupled from synoptic moral and economic principles.

The Cardinal Sins of European Energy Policy: Nongovernance in an Uncertain Global Landscape

“…Because of the ‘shale revolution’, it seems that on both sides of the Atlantic the opportunity costs for renewables and deep energy‐efficiency measures are rising (Dröge and Westphal, ). An indirect effect is the falling prices of coal coming to the European market, increasing the EU's emissions and providing a tempting low‐cost short‐term economic solution.…”

“…In the long run we will see, most likely (although not without a degree of uncertainty) growing costs of fossil fuels – not just for climate reasons – and falling costs of renewables. The growing backlash against sustainability and focus on the short‐term economic situation is of great concern (see Creutzig et al., ). The expansion of renewables could reduce demand and with it the price for fossil fuels, making it again economically unsound to look for new hydrocarbon sources (Froggatt and Levi, , p. 1138).…”