1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Applied Climate Change Ethics
The Routledge Handbook of Applied Climate Change Ethics is a powerful reference source for the identification and exploration of the underlying ethical issues in climate change law and policy. Bridging theory with practice, it takes ethical engagement out of the classroom and into the halls of governance.
The Handbook‘s 39 chapters--written by a diverse and inter-disciplinary team of experts from around the world--are case studies divided into five parts. Parts I-IV highlight the ethical issues that arise in climate change policy formation, from duties not to harm to duties to consider the views and voices of those who will be, or are being, harmed; from the role of human rights, justice, and democracy to how to identify and respond to disinformation and denialism. It also raises the ethics of various policy responses, such as cap-and-trade, carbon taxing, and geo-engineering. Part V offers a way forward, with strategies on how to expressly consider ethics in climate change policy formation, from negotiations to education, media, communication, and the power and potential of shaming.
The volume is essential reading for students, professors, and practitioners who wish to better engage with government and non-government organizations on climate policy, to better understand the practical application of the theory and philosophy of ethics, and how to more strongly draft and defend ethical action in negotiating, drafting, and defending climate change law and policy.
Introduction
Donald Brown and Kathryn Gwiazdon
Part I: Ethical Issues that Arise in Governments’ Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Policy Formations
1. Duties of Nation-States to Prevent Activities Within Their Jurisdiction that Harm People and Nations Outside Their Boundaries: The Meaning of the No Harm Principle as Applied to International Relations
Nigel Dower
2. Duties to Not Harm Ecological Systems, Plants, and Animals
Michelle Maloney
3. Duties to Consider the Views of Those Who Will Be Harmed by Climate Change
Rainier A. Ibana
4. The Ethics of Climate Targets: Extinction Rebellion V. The Climate Establishment
Stephen Gardiner
5. The Role of Human Rights in Setting a National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Target
Bridget Lewis and Donald A. Brown
6. Appropriate Application of Equity: The Case Study of Brazil’s National Determined Contributions
Maria Silvia Muylaert de Araujo
7. Mitigation Duties of Poor and Vulnerable Countries
Steve Vanderheiden
Part II: Ethical Issues that Arise from the Responsibility to Respond to Unavoidable Climate Change Harms
8. Justice and Democracy in Climate Change Adaptation
Bruce Jennings
9. Socially Constructed Expectations of Certainty in Climate Science
Kirk Junker
10. Ethical Obligations to Develop and Support a Precautionary Principle to Guide National Responses to Climate Change
Carl Cranor
11. The Ethical Responsibility of Developed Nations to Help Finance Adaptation Costs in Poor Developing Countries
Workineh Kelbessa
12. Climate Justice in Nigeria: A Pathway to Defending the Rights of Disproportionately Affected Persons
Ngozi Unuigbe
13. The Responsibility of Nations to Address Climate Refugees and Displaced Persons
Donald Brown
14. Taking Moral Responsibility for Climate Change by Cities
Johan Hattingh
15. The Lisbon Case Study: The Ethical Obligations of Urban Policymakers to Support Policies Entailed by Mainstream Climate Science
Karla Matos
16. The Ethical Responsibility of Individuals to Reduce Greenhouse Gases
Rainier A. Ibana
Part III: Ethical Issues Raised by Arguments Frequently Made in Opposition to Climate Change Policies
17. Instrumental Reasoning and Climate Policy
J. Timmons Roberts and Donald A. Brown
18. Ethical Problems with Cost Arguments Made in Opposition to Climate Change Policies
Stephen M. Gardiner and Donald A. Brown
19. The Climate Change Disinformation Campaign: Attacking the Common Good, Advancing the Self, and Destroying Democracy
Kathryn Gwiazdon and Donald A. Brown
20. Ethical Rules that Climate Change Skeptics Should Abide By
Donald Brown
21. Climate Change, Difficulty, and Ignorance
Philip Robichaud
22. Saving Democracy: Denying the Alternate Reality of Climate Denialism
Kathryn Gwiazdon
Part IV: Ethical Issues Raised by Various Policy Responses to Climate Change
23. Ethical Issues Raised by Cap-and-Trade Regimes
Nicholas Bryner
24. Ethical Issues Raised by Carbon Taxing Regimes
Cristiane Derani
25. An Ethical Approach to Assessments of Harm from Climate Change and Global Heating: The Problem with Integrated Assessment Models and Other Value-Laden Tools
Geoffrey Garver
26. Ethical Issues Raised by Geoengineering Technologies to Reduce the Threat of Climate Change
Shi Jun
27. The Ethics of Carbon Offsets and Their Afterlives in Tropical Forests
Maron Greenleaf
28. Key Ethical Issues for Climate-Forest Policies
Brendan Mackey and Nicole Rogers
29. Paris’ Article 6 Deadlock: Climate Change, from Globalization to Nationalism
José Domingos Gonzalez Miguez and Thiago de Araújo Mendes
30. New Zealand’s Net Zero Carbon Legislation: Obfuscation and Missed Opportunities to Move Beyond the Dominance of National Self-Interest
Prue Taylor
31. Human Rights-Based Approaches to Climate Litigation: A Critical Perspective of the Indigenous Athabaskans Case
Giada Giacomini
Part V: A Way Forward: Strategies to Expressly Consider Ethics in Climate Change Policy Formation
32. Ethical Guidance for Negotiating and Arguing About Climate Change
Hugh Breakey
33. Ethical and Ecological Education: An Approach to Climate Change through the Lens of the Earth Charter
Mirian Vilela
34. Farming Knowledge: Epistemic Injustice and Climate Services
Dina Townsend
35. Strategies to Increase Media Coverage of Ethical Issues That Arise in Climate Change Policy Formation
Peter Burdon
36. Why We Need ‘Cultural Intelligence’ in Climate Change Communication, and How Integral Theory Can Help
David Storey
37. On the Effectiveness and Legitimacy of ‘Shaming’ as a Strategy for Combatting Climate Change
Behnam Taebi and Azar Safari
38. The Art of Disobedience: Climate Justice Activism
Benjamin Richardson
39. Environmental Personhood: A Novel Principle of International Law?
Alessandro Pelizzon
Biography
Donald A. Brown is Scholar in Residence for Sustainability Ethics and Law at Widener University Commonwealth Law School in Harrisburg, USA. He has taught or lectured on climate change ethical/policy issues in 38 countries approximately 80 times. He also manages the award-winning website ethicsandclimate.org which contains over 200 articles and videos on climate ethics.
Kathryn Gwiazdon is Professor of Public International Law, Climate Change Law and Policy, and Human Rights Law at the Northern Illinois University College of Law, USA. She is also the Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Ethics and Law, as well as Chair of the Ethics Specialist Group of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law.
Laura Westra is Professor Emeritus from the Department of Philosophy at University of Windsor in Windsor, Canada. She is also Founder and Director of Global Ecological Integrity Group, a research group dedicated to pushing the boundaries of scholarly endeavor through inter- and trans-disciplinary engagement on matters affecting and governing the sustainability of life for both present and future generations.
