The Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change

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1 The Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change Global Integrity Project July 5-9, 2006 Program website:

2 Collaborative Program on The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change 1. When we say climate change raises profound ethical questions what do we mean by that 2. Explain the Collaborative Program on The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change 3. Invite your ideas about how to bring this work forward.

3 Thank you Samos Organizers For your dedication to human health and the environment Colin, I dub you Hippocrates For your passionate attempt to integrate science with ethics Brendan, I dub you Aristotle For your dedication to making public discourse live up to the great ideas of history, Ron I dub you Plato For being the animating spirit of the global ecological integrity project -Laura, I dub you Athena

4 The Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change East West North Why is ethical integration into climate change policy formation so important and urgent? st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

5 What are the ethical dimensions of Climate change At one level, the fact that climate change raises ethical issues is obvious Yet some are arguing that climate change does not raise ethical questions Many of the most important ethical questions are not recognized because they are hidden in the dominant policy languages of science and economics

6 The Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change-Collaborating Partners Rock Ethics Institute-Penn State University (Program Secretariat) The Pennsylvania Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy IUCN-Commission on Environmental Law-Ethics Working Group Center for Applied Ethics- Cardiff University The Global Integrity Project Center for Global Ethics at Birmingham University, Tyndall Center for Global Climate Change Oxford Climate Policy EcoEquity Center for Ethics, University of Montana, New Directions: Science, Ethics, Policy The Federal University Of Rio de Janeiro And individuals with expertise and interest in climate change or global ethics. Also cooperating with the World Council of Churches, Climate Change Program

7 Program Milestones Launching in Buenos Aires in 2004 Rock Ethics Institute secretariat, website Development of draft white paper (now 80 pages) Development of detailed climate change ethics bibliography on website6 Meeting on draft white paper in Montreal in 2005 Meeting with collaborators from global south in August 2006 in Rio de Janeiro Workshop in Nairobi at Cop-12 in November 2006 Develop quick response blog in late 2006 International conference in 2007/2008

8 Collaborative Program On The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change Program Mission Encourage, facilitate, and provide serious ethical analyses of concrete climate change issues. Help ordinary citizens around the world see climate change as an ethical and moral problem.

9 Collaborative Program On The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change Program Mission Support ethically informed policy development. Encourage ethically responsible climate change science.

10 The White Paper Seeks to identify the factual context for eight issues Do preliminary ethical analysis of issues where we believe there is consensus Identify issues about which deeper ethical analysis is needed

11 Major Climate Change Ethical Issues Ethical issue one, the atmospheric stabilization question. As we have seen the level of warming that is permitted will determine which humans, plants and animals survive. If warming is allowed to rise above certain levels -- according to a growing scientific consensus, about 2 degrees Celsius above current world average temperatures -- millions of the poorest people around the world will be at great risk from rising seas, disease, droughts and floods, storms and killer heat waves. As I have already noted the atmospheric GHG stabilization question raises the most profound ethical questions,literally matters of life and death. As we have worked through this issue we have concluded that if one assumes rights to human life, all nations must immediately reduce emissions to fair share of global emissions

12 Major Climate Change Ethical Issues Issue two, the national equity question. The international community will not be able to duck the question of how to allocate emissions targets among nations so that total atmospheric concentrations of GHGs do not exceed very dangerous levels. In the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 180 nations, including the United States, agreed that each country should reduce its emissions based upon equity to prevent dangerous interference with the climate system. As we have noted if nations take equity seriously, they will have to reduce their emissions by more than 90% not just the 60 to 80% reductions required of the entire global community. Therefore the second critical ethical question raised by climate change is what does equity require of each nation in determining its fair share of acceptable global emissions.

13 Major Climate Change Ethical Issues Issue three, who will pay for damages? Rarely discussed in the United States Becoming a huge issue in international negotiations Persons affected are to beginning to show up and demand payment for damages (Small Island Developing States, Intuit Indians, Sherpas from Nepal, victims of drought and floods) Becoming a big focus of climate change negotiations, yet it is an issue hardly visible in bcurrent climate change debates in the US.

14 Climate change ethical issues The fourth issue, scientific uncertainty. For over 20 years, the United States has argued that it need not reduce its emissions because of scientific uncertainty Despite consensus some uncertainty about timing and magnitude of impacts will remain The way the scientific community deals with the uncertainty is to set upper and lower bounds for expected warming. Scientific uncertainty arguments will continue. When the Evangelical Environmental Network tried to get Americans to see the ethical dimensions of climate change in a campaign launched in March of last year, they were attacked on the basis that climate change is a scientific issue, and nonscientists should keep quiet about it. The attackers cited scientific uncertainty about climate change for their position.

15 One example of ethical analysis a climate change issue-decision making under scientific uncertainty. Ethical dimensions of scientific uncertainty Why burden of proof should be on emitters of GHG. The enormous adverse potential impacts on human health and the environment from human induced climate change. The disproportionate effects on the poorest people of the world. The real potential for potentially catastrophic climate surprises much greater than often quoted predictions that rely on assumptions of linear responses to climate change. The fact that much of the science of the climate change problem has never or is not now in dispute even if one acknowledges uncertainty about timing or magnitude of climate change impacts. The fact that climate change damage is probably already being experienced by some people. The strong likelihood that before serious and irreversible damage will be experienced all scientific uncertainties can be eliminated. The fact that the longer nations wait to take action, the more difficult it will be to stabilize greenhouse gases at levels which don t create serious dam

16 Ethical Limits of Climate Change Policy Tools Ethical dimensions of scientific uncertainty -Quantity of Proof Type 1 versus 2 statistical error IPCC synthesizes peer reviewed research Models can only be rough predictors Ethics requires that all plausible impacts be identified Victims of climate change have right to free, informed consent about all risks being imposed upon them

17 Ethical Limits of Climate Change Policy Tools Science uncertainty creates rights for victims to free, informed, consent to bar the risk In order to give free informed consent about climate change policy options, persons must: Not be forced to take a position Understand policy options Be in possession of all relevant information, and. Be competent to make policy judgments. Harms and benefits must be disaggregated

18 Climate Change Ethical Issues Ethical Issue Five-Cost Argument Takes Two Forms Cost to national economies Cost-Benefit Analysis Multiple Ethical Problems No person or country as a right to use another as a means to their ends CBA aggregates costs and benefits Victims have rights to full informed consent All values become instrumental value alone, nothing is sacred Discounting makes benefits that are experienced makes future generations interests worthless

19 Other Ethical Issues What does ethics have to say about the excuse that we can wait to new technologies will be invented What does ethics have to say about the excuse that no nation need to reduce its emissions until other nations reduce their emissions How to we have a fair process that provides opportunities for victims of climate change to participate.

20 Collaborative Program on The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change Why express examination of climate change ethical issues is urgent Unless the ethical dimensions are considered, the international community may choose responses that are ethically unsupportable or unjust; Many profound ethical questions are hidden in scientific and economic arguments about various climate change policy proposals; An equitable approach to climate change policy is necessary to overcome barriers currently blocking progress in international negotiations; An ethically based global consensus on climate change may prevent further disparities between rich and poor, and reduce potential international tension that will arise from climate-caused food and water scarcities and perceived inequitable use of the global atmospheric commons as a carbon sink; Climate ethics will drive climate science.

21 Collaborative Program on The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change How Is CPEDCC going to assure that its work is relevant to policy formation; Focus on issues that are actually in contention in climate change policy formation; Use interdisciplinary teams that set out scientific, economic, and social context before doing ethical analysis of specific issues Collaborate with those who know climate change issues in contention; Seek to set agenda that coincides with issues under discussion in policy formation Develop two types of literature Serious ethical critique. Non-specialist accessible literature

22 Collaborative Program on The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change The way forward White paper-first attempt to structure the issues Further papers Consultation with representatives from the global south in August in Rio Meeting at COP-12 in Nairobi in November Add other collaborators International conference in 2006/2007 Interdisciplinary teams around issue Keep track of independent work of others Bibliography Conferences Quick response capability

23 The Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change We seek additional collaborators to work on interdisciplinary teams. Collaborators can be either individuals or institutions with interest or knowledge about climate change policy, climate change ethics, or global ethics. We particularly seek collaborators from places vulnerable to climate change We will provide the analysis that others can use in public policy debates

24 Collaborative Program on The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change For more information: Program website: htm Call or contact Don Brown at or