Climate Change Justice (original) (raw)

Anthropogenic climate change is a global process affecting the lives and well-being of millions of people now and countless number of people in the future. For humans, the consequences may include significant threats to food security globally and regionally, increased risks of from food-borne and water-borne as well as vector-borne diseases, increased displacement of people due migrations, increased risks of violent conf licts, slowed economic growth and poverty eradication, and the creation of new poverty traps. Principles of justice are statements of what persons are owed either by others or by institutions and policies. Climate change gives rise to many concern of justice. This article brief ly summarizes some of the most important of these, including claims to have climate change mitigated, claims regarding the sharing of the costs of climate change mitigation, claims for investment into adaptation, and claims to be compensated. Anthropogenic climate change is a global process affecting the lives and well-being of millions of people now and countless number of people in the future. 1 Although the effects of climate change are likely to appear as the result of natural processes and disasters – and even though it may be difficult, for the time being at least even impossible, to distinguish them from natural misfortunes – they are in fact the result of human energy use and policy. Without substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO 2 , the most likely rise in the mean equilibrium surface temperature of the Earth over pre-industrial times by the end of this century is in the range of 3.7 to 4.8 °C, but the possible range is much wider, 2.5 to 7.8 °C. 2 That much warming at that rate is unprecedented in human history. It would produce high to very high risks of severely negative effects, including widespread loss of species and eco-systemic destruction, heat waves, extreme precipitation, and large and irreversible sea-level rise from ice sheet loss. 3 For humans, these consequences would include significant threats to food security globally and regionally, increased risks of from food-borne and water-borne as well as vector-borne diseases, increased displacement of people due migrations, increased risks of violent conf licts, slowed economic growth and poverty eradication, and the creation of new poverty traps. 4 According to some forecasts, such warming could simply overwhelm the capacity of communities in various regions to adapt, rendering certain areas uninhabitable. '[T]he limits for human adaptation are likely to be exceeded in many parts of the world, while the limits of adaptation for natural resource systems would largely be exceeded throughout the world.' 5 Principles of justice are statements of what persons are owed either by others or by institutions and policies. Climate change gives rise to many concern of justice. This article brief ly summarizes some of the most important of these, but due to the need to be brief, some important considerations relevant to justice will not be discussed. For example, although we will discuss formulations of various principles of justice, we will not consider all of the relevant questions regarding the formulation and justification of these principles. Additionally, considerations of justice directly raise questions of responsibility. Accounts of responsibility concern who is called upon to deliver that which is owed to those who are owed. Although there is a reasonably clear distinction in