scholarly journals The Ethics of Climate Nudges: Central Issues for Applying Choice Architecture Interventions to Climate Policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Helena SIIPI ◽  
Polaris KOI
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Choice Architecture ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
The Right ◽  
Climate Crisis

While nudging has garnered plenty of interdisciplinary attention, the ethics of applying it to climate policy has been little discussed. However, not all ethical considerations surrounding nudging are straightforward to apply to climate nudges. In this article, we overview the state of the debate on the ethics of nudging and highlight themes that are either specific to or particularly important for climate nudges. These include: the justification of nudges that are not self-regarding; how to account for climate change denialists; transparency; knowing the right or best behaviours; justice concerns; and whether the efficacy of nudges is sufficient for nudges to be justified as a response to the climate crisis. We conclude that climate nudges raise distinct ethical questions that ought to be considered in developing climate nudges.

Democracy and the Challenge of Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Lindvall
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Institutional Learning ◽  
The Face ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
Free Flow Of Information ◽  
Climate Crisis

Climate change actions in democracies face perceived challenges such as short-term bias in decision-making, policy capture or inconsistency, weak accountability mechanisms and the permeability of the policy-making process to interests adverse to fighting climate change through the role of money in politics. Apart from its intrinsic value to citizens, democracy also brings critical advantages in formulating effective climate policy, such as representative parliaments which can hold governments to account, widespread civic participation, independent media and a free flow of information, the active engagement by civil society organizations in policymaking and the capacity for institutional learning in the face of complex issues with long-term and global social and political implications. International IDEA’s work on change and democracy aims to support democratic institutions to successfully confront the climate crisis by leveraging their advantages and overcoming the challenges to formulating effective and democratically owned climate policy agendas.

scholarly journals Japan’s Climate Change Discourse: Toward Climate Securitisation?

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
Florentine Koppenborg ◽  
Ulv Hanssen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Security Issue ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
The Status ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
First Time

This article situates Japan in the international climate security debate by analysing competing climate change discourses. In 2020, for the first time, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment included the term “climate crisis” (<em>kikō kiki</em>) in its annual white paper, and the Japanese parliament adopted a “climate emergency declaration” (<em>kikō hijō jitai sengen</em>). Does this mean that Japan’s climate discourse is turning toward the securitisation of climate change? Drawing on securitisation theory, this article investigates whether we are seeing the emergence of a climate change securitisation discourse that treats climate change as a security issue rather than a conventional political issue. The analysis focuses on different stakeholders in Japan’s climate policy: the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the parliament, the Cabinet, and sub- and non-state actors. Through a discourse analysis of ministry white papers and publications by other stakeholders, the article identifies a burgeoning securitisation discourse that challenges, albeit moderately, the status quo of incrementalism and inaction in Japan’s climate policy. This article further highlights Japan’s position in the rapidly evolving global debate on the urgency of climate action and provides explanations for apparent changes and continuities in Japan’s climate change discourse.

scholarly journals Different Countries, Common Support for Climate Change Mitigation: The Case of Germany and Poland

Climate ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Bohdanowicz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
The Public ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Common Support ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Change Mitigation

There are numerous studies assessing the influence of individual sociological, political, and demographic factors on attitudes towards climate change. However, there is still a need for a deeper understanding of the reasons behind these attitudes and for research based on results from more than one country. This study empirically examines a range of psychosocial and demographic determinants of support for climate policy (renewable energy, energy efficiency and carbon tax) in Germany and Poland (n = 1969). The results show that the societies of both countries, despite significant differences in income, culture and political stance on climate change, similarly support implementation of climate policies. For both countries valid predictors of support are: awareness, emotional response to climate crisis, sense of control, and belief in effectiveness of solutions; the study also shows predictors relevant in only one country. Factor analysis identified similar dimensions of attitudes toward climate change in both countries. The main findings show that support for climate policy is high in both countries and that the public is ready to accept more ambitious climate goals. Despite the differences between the countries, a coherent climate policy seems justified. The study also shows differences between the countries and provides recommendations for policymakers.

Tales of the Apocalypse: The Child’s Right to a Secure Climate

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 553-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne McGillivray
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
The State ◽  
Intergenerational Equity ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right

All rights of children equate with the right to a life-sustaining biosphere. Climate change disproportionately harms children and profoundly threatens their future. Dystopian futures portrayed in cli-fi films illustrate the dangers but also may contribute to paralysis in the face of rapidly increasing global warming. Intergenerational equity frames our duty to future generations. A child-led lawsuit, if successful, will hold the state to its duty to safeguard natural resources. A new corporate paradigm is essential. Central to all strategies is hearing the child.

Territorial Instability and the Right to a Livable Locality

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-207
Author(s):  
Simona Capisani ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Territorial State ◽  
Environmental Background ◽  
The Right

Territory loss and uninhabitability characterize the current environmental background conditions of the international state system. Such conditions present pressing moral questions about our obligations to protect those who are displaced by anthropogenic climate change. By virtue of our participation in the territorial state system, understood as a social practice, we have principled grounds to address some of the consequences of the uninhabitability conditions brought on by climate change. By assuming territorial instability and employing a practice-based method of justification we can identify a fundamental, basic right protected under the state system—the right to a livable locality—which grounds a moral obligation to protect against climate change-induced displacement. Assuming territorial instability and uninhabitability compels us to recognize that the causes generating climate-displacement are not merely natural but rather deeply political and that displacement is a foreseeable failure that results because of the state system’s organizational structure.

Toward an ethics of decolonizing allyship in climate organizing: reflections on Extinction Rebellion Vancouver

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 32-53
Author(s):  
Dana James ◽  
◽  
Trevor Mack ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
The State ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Relational Accountability ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Climate Crisis

Since launching in the UK in 2018, Extinction Rebellion (XR) has become a global social movement that uses mass civil disobedience to pressure governments to take immediate action on the climate crisis. While XR has shifted the conversation on climate change, it has also been critiqued for its lack of attention to privilege and oppression, and for its ‘apolitical’ approach to climate organizing. In this article, we argue that XR must develop an intersectional approach in order to address the climate crisis. In particular, we reflect on our experiences as participants in XR-Vancouver, located on unceded Indigenous territory in the settler colonial state of Canada. Settler colonialism in Canada is intertwined with the climate and ecological crises, as Canada's status as a petrostate is built on the dispossession of Indigenous Peoples through a strategy of racial extractivism. To attend to these dynamics, we build on Kyle Powys Whyte's concept of ‘decolonizing allyship’ and suggest three ethics – of relational accountability, care, and incommensurability – that settler-led movements like XR can cultivate. We conclude by inviting XR to (re)engage with a ‘politics of refusal’ that subverts the state and allows XR to collectively enact what different systems (rooted in intersectional, decolonizing allyship) could look like.

scholarly journals Is Chile building good climate governance? Reflections on the drafting process of the climate change framework law

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-48
Author(s):  
Monserrat Madariaga Gómez de Cuenca
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Regulatory Instruments ◽  
Critical Account ◽  
Change Framework ◽  
The Right ◽  
Climate Crisis

This article provides a critical account of the genesis of the first Chilean climate change law. Analysis and discussion on national climate policies and laws must take into account the constitutional, legal, political and social context of each country. Along with a description of the main objectives and regulatory instruments in the law, this article contains a review of the drafting process -with a special focus on the actors involved and public participation-.This review demonstrates a centralised decision-making process which lacked meaningful public participation. These violations to the right of democracy lead to the disappointing prediction that this climate change law and the instruments that will be enacted to implement it will be unfit to respond to the climate crisis in a country that – like many others – desperately needs to take climate change-related action.

What we can learn from the parallels between the COVID-19 and the future climate change crises

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubén D. Manzanedo ◽  
Peter Manning
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
Preventative Measures ◽  
The Future ◽  
Behavioral Norm ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Global Population

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak pandemic is now a global crisis. It has caused 1.6+ million confirmed cases and 100 000+ deaths at the time of writing and triggered unprecedented preventative measures that have put a substantial portion of the global population under confinement, imposed isolation, and established ‘social distancing’ as a new global behavioral norm. The COVID-19 crisis has affected all aspects of everyday life and work, while also threatening the health of the global economy. This crisis offers also an unprecedented view of what the global climate crisis may look like. In fact, some of the parallels between the COVID-19 crisis and what we expect from the looming global climate emergency are remarkable. Reflecting upon the most challenging aspects of today’s crisis and how they compare with those expected from the climate change emergency may help us better prepare for the future.

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