Download Climate Change

Sharing the Responsibilities of
Dealing with Climate Change:
Interpreting the Principle of Common but
Differentiated Responsibilities
Dan Turton, David Eng, Ramon Das
Victoria University of Wellington
Climate Change Problem
• Problem of Global Commons – Fair distribution
of responsibilities to deal with a threat to a
common good
• Climate Change Problem:
– Increasing concentrations of Atmospheric GHGs
– Rapid environmental changes e.g. temperature
– Likely to result in devastating consequences for
humankind
• Requires reducing GHGs 350-450 ppm by 2020
Good Solution to the Problem
• Policies for distributing ethical
responsibility when there is a common
global good
– Criteria
• Fair
• Justified
• Achievable
Principle of Common but
Differentiated Responsibilities
• Principle 7 of Rio Declaration on Environment
and Sustainability (1992)
• “In view of the different contributions to global
environmental degradation, States have
common but differentiated responsibilities.
• The developed countries acknowledge the
responsibility that they bear in the international
pursuit of sustainable development in view of the
pressures their societies place on the global
environment and of the technologies and
financial resources they command.”
Common Approaches: Polluter
Pays Principle
• Those who pollute should pay
• Justification – If an agent causes harm,
they are responsible for remedying harm
• Example Policies
– Cap and trade on GHG emissions
• Absolute cap (350-450 ppm) distributed on GHG
emissions/capita
– Taxes directly linked to polluting over quota
Common Approaches: Polluter
Pays Principle
•
2 Variations
–
Full liability – PPP regardless of whether the agent
knows that the actions are harmful
•
Problems:
1. Inter-generational problem – Unfair to hold current generation
accountable for actions of previous generation
2. Unfair to assign moral responsibility when agents aren’t aware
of harmful consequences of their actions
–
Conditional liability (CPPP) – PPP conditional on
‘knowing’
•
Practical problem - Fair but insufficient distribution of
responsibilities to solve problem
Common Approaches: Beneficiary
Pays Principle
• Those who benefit should pay
• Justification
– if an agent benefits at a cost to others, the agent
should pay for those costs
– Avoids inter-generational problem facing PPP
• Example policies
– Developed countries that have benefited from GHG
emissions should pay for majority of mitigation and
adaptation costs
– Taxes on profits from polluting
Common Approaches: Beneficiary
Pays Principle
• Problems
– Not feasible – how do we distinguish when
individuals benefit based on polluting versus
non-polluting activities?
– Unfair - Ignores knowing polluters
– Non-identity problem
Common Approaches: Ability to
Pay Principle
• Those who have the ability should pay
• Justification
– ‘Drowning child example’
– Addresses problem of historical polluting
• Example policies
– Richer states should contribute to an international
fund that helps poorer countries adapt to climate
change and industrialise in a more sustainable way
– Potential ability threshold band - annual per capita
GDP(PPP) is above $4,000-5,000 (International $)
Common Approaches: Ability to
Pay Principle
• Problem:
– In certain cases, APP assigns moral
responsibility to the wrong agents and ignores
other morally relevant factors
• Knowing polluters
Summary of Common Approaches
• Individual Principles
– Each fails to capture a moral dimension of the
Climate Change Problem
• PPP
– Suffers from a dilemma about historical polluting
• BPP
– Ignores knowing polluters and measurement problem
• APP
– Unfairly assigns responsibility to those who are
innocent and have the ability when others are morally
culpable
Hybrid Approaches
• “The developed countries acknowledge
the responsibility that they bear in the
international pursuit of sustainable
development in view of the pressures their
societies place on the global environment
and of the technologies and financial
resources they command.”
• PPP and APP (Caney, OXFAM AFI, and
Our Account)
Our Hybrid Account
• Hybrid of CPPP and APP
– CPPP – it is wrong to knowingly pollute over
the quota, but only if the citizens of a state
meet a basic level of welfare (APP)
– APP – states, whose citizens exceed a certain
basic level of welfare, have a responsibility to
mitigate and help other countries adapt to
climate change
Our Hybrid Account
Justification:
1) States have…
a) A primary responsibility – to ensure a basic level of
welfare for their citizens, and…
b) A secondary responsibility – to ensure the same
basic level of welfare for all people
2) Wrong to knowingly pollute
3) 1a overrides 2 – if the citizens of a state do not
meet a basic level of welfare, it is permissible
to knowingly pollute…
How Our Account Works
Meets minimum ability
(welfare) threshold?
Yes
Moral
responsibility
to deal with its
own culpable
GHG emitting
(CPPP)
No
Moral responsibility to
pursue a minimally
decent quality of life
for its citizens (APP)
Yes
Moral
responsibility to
deal with nonculpable historical
GHG emissions
(APP)
Policies should incentivise reduction
of GHG emissions to safe levels
Policies should
ensure
contribution to
an international
fund that helps
poorer countries
adapt to climate
change and
industrialised in
a more
sustainable way
Policies should
allow for
increase in
GHG
emissions, but
only in order to
increase the
well-being of
citizens