Does Climate Change Policy Depend Importantly on Population Ethics?

2021 ◽  
pp. 111-136
Author(s):  
Gustaf Arrhenius ◽  
Mark Budolfson ◽  
Dean Spears
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
Population Ethics ◽  
Impossibility Results ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Population Axiology

Choosing a policy response to climate change seems to demand a population axiology. A formal literature involving impossibility theorems has demonstrated that all possible approaches to population axiology have one or more seemingly counterintuitive implications. This leads to the worry that because axiological theory is radically unresolved, this theoretical ignorance implies serious practical ignorance about what climate policies to pursue. This chapter offers two deflationary responses to this worry. First, it may be that given the actual facts of climate change, all axiologies agree on a particular policy response. In this case, there would be a clear dominance conclusion, and the puzzles of axiology would be practically irrelevant (albeit still theoretically challenging). Second, despite the impossibility results, the authors prove the possibility of axiologies that satisfy bounded versions of all of the desiderata from the population axiology literature, which may be all that is needed for policy evaluation.

scholarly journals Does Climate Change Policy Depend Importantly on Population Ethics? Deflationary Responses to the Challenges of Population Ethics for Public Policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustaf Arrhenius ◽  
Mark Budolfson ◽  
Dean Spears
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
Population Ethics ◽  
Impossibility Results ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Population Axiology

Choosing a policy response to climate change seems to demand a population axiology. A formal literature involving impossibility theorems has demonstrated that all possible approaches to population axiology have one or more seemingly counterintuitive implications. This leads to the worry that because axiology is so theoretically unresolved as to permit a wide range of reasonable disagreement, our ignorance implies serious practical ignorance about what climate policies to pursue. We offer two deflationary responses to this worry. First, it may be that given the actual facts of climate change, all axiologies agree on a particular policy response. In this case, there would be a clear dominance conclusion, and the puzzles of axiology would be practically irrelevant (albeit still theoretically challenging). Second, despite the impossibility results, we prove the possibility of axiologies that satisfy bounded versions of all of the desiderata from the population axiology literature, which may be all that is needed for policy evaluation.

Climate Change Triage

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah M. Sachs
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Emergency Medicine ◽  
International Law ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Change Mitigation

Climate change is the first global triage crisis. It is caused by the overuse of a severely limited natural resource—the atmosphere’s capacity to absorb greenhouse gases—and millions of lives depend on how international law allocates this resource among nations.This Article is the first to explore solutions for climate change mitigation through the lens of triage ethics, drawing on law, philosophy, moral theory, and economics. The literature on triage ethics—developed in contexts such as battlefield trauma, organ donation, emergency medicine, and distribution of food and shelter—has direct implications for climate change policy and law, yet it has been overlooked by climate change scholars. The triage lens rules out climate policies—including the current emissions path—that will lead to catastrophic warming, and it puts options on the table that are marginalized in the current United Nations negotiations on a climate change agreement.This Article examines three allocation principles that could potentially apply in climate change triage—utilitarianism, egalitarianism, and a market-based distribution—and it concludes that egalitarianism is the preferable allocation principle from the standpoint of ethics and international law. This Article ends by exploring four major policy implications that emerge from viewing climate change through the lens of triage.

scholarly journals THE CHOICE OF DISCOUNT RATE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY EVALUATION

2012 ◽  
Vol 03 (04) ◽  
pp. 1250024 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAWRENCE H. GOULDER ◽  
ROBERTON C. WILLIAMS
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Discount Rate ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Numerical Optimization ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Pareto Improvement ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Change Policy

Nearly all discussions about the appropriate consumption discount rate for climate-change policy evaluation assume that a single discount rate concept applies. We argue that two distinct concepts and associated rates apply. We distinguish a social-welfare-equivalent discount rate (r SW ) appropriate for determining whether a given policy would augment social welfare (according to a postulated social welfare function) and a finance-equivalent discount rate (rF) suitable for determining whether the policy would offer a potential Pareto improvement. Distinguishing the two rates helps resolve arguments as to whether the choice of discount rate should be based on ethical considerations or empirical information (such as market interest rates), and about whether the discount rate should serve a prescriptive or descriptive role. Separating out the two rates also helps clarify disputes about the appropriate stringency of climate change policy. We find that the structure of leading numerical optimization models used for climate policy analysis may have helped contribute to the blurring of the differences between r SW and rF. In addition, we indicate that uncertainty about underlying ethical parameters or market conditions implies that both r SW and rF should decline as the time-horizon increases.

scholarly journals Climate Change Policy Evaluation and Its Impact on Island Nations: Case Of Singapore And Sri Lanka

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Osada Vishvajith Peiris
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Policy Measures

Climate Change (CC) is universally recognized as a major global threat due to its nature of impacts. Island nations are known to be the most vulnerable to CC impacts where many countries have initiated mitigation and adaptation actions through sector-based policy measures. Singapore and Sri Lanka are two Asian island nations with CC induced threats. Two countries are different in terms of economic development, but similar developing countries in the CC agenda. In this context, both the countries have initiated mitigation and adaptation actions through policy measures. This study compares the key climate driven performance indicators with historical data to evaluate the performance of climate change policy of each country. Generally, policy evaluation has been conducted by adopting scientific and non-scientific tools, but it is seldom see that the relation of climate driven indicators along with CC policy. Also the policy research was mostly based on European case studies and Asian island nations were not easy to find in this context. The comparison of two countries in terms of CC policy is to determine the key vulnerable sectors where intervention is necessary for island nations. Mitigation policies are evaluated in Singapore and Sri Lanka using GHG emission pathways under twelve (12) indicators and adaptation policies are measured under the national expenditure of key sectors of the economy under seven (07) indicators. The analysis further elaborated by comparing both countries with key economic sectors that has positive and negative influence on CC impacts. Finally, the analysis outcome is used for lessons to learn from each other in improving the CC policy of Singapore and Sri Lanka. As every country has a unique set of strategies to minimize contributions to CC impacts, unique features that are common to both countries are chosen as variables for the comparison. Policy recommendations are provided to implement solid action plan for post 2020. The study expects to assist island countries to strengthen the CC policy as a national priority to manage unforeseen impacts posed by CC phenomena

A Climate Backlash: Comparing Populist Parties’ Climate Policies in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden

2021 ◽  
pp. 107049652110277
Author(s):  
Antto Vihma ◽  
Gunilla Reischl ◽  
Astrid Nonbo Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Empirical Science ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Change Policy

The rise of authoritarian populism has disrupted the patterns of party competition in many Western societies. Related to this development, the current debates in the United States and European Union illustrate how empirical science on climate change may become intensely politicized, and all ambitious climate policies challenged in the contemporary political landscape. We set out an analytical framework with three ideal types of political strategies for opposing climate policies: climate science denialism, climate policy nationalism, and climate policy conservativism. Empirically, the article investigates populist resistance to ambitious climate change policy in the Nordic context, where countries have sought to assume global leadership in climate politics and have considerable public support for climate action. In an analysis of the evolving positions of populist parties in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden in recent elections, the article sheds light on the interconnection between populism and climate change policy.

Public Perceptions of Climate Change and Support for Climate Policies in Asia: Evidence from Recent Polls

2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
So Young Kim
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Global Coordination ◽  
Change Mitigation ◽  
Cross National

Climate change has become a focal point in recent environmental debates and policymaking. Latest polls show rising consensus among the global public on the urgency of the problem. Home to the fastest growing economies as well as to four of the ten largest greenhouse gas emitters, Asia holds key to successful global coordination on climate change policy. This essay draws a contour of Asian public opinion on climate change issues based on multiple cross-national polls. While generally aware of climate change and seriously concerned about its effects, Asians turn out to be the least willing to bear the costs of climate change mitigation as compared to the residents of other regions of the world. This portends a great hurdle to devising and implementing proactive policies to address the challenges of climate change in the region.

Gender mainstreaming in climate change adaptation strategies in Bangladesh and Nepal.

2021 ◽  
pp. 211-219
Author(s):  
S. Shehwar
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation Strategies

Abstract This chapter discusses the state of gender mainstreaming in climate action activities and policies in two South Asian neighbors, Bangladesh and Nepal, based on a review of key climate change policy documents. Three questions are addressed: (1) How do Bangladesh and Nepal mitigate the detrimental effects of climate change for rural women? (2) How do climate policies and programmes in Bangladesh and Nepal respond to the different needs and concerns of these women within their national adaptation strategies? (3) What are the opportunities and challenges of mainstreaming gender in climate action policies and programmes in Bangladesh and Nepal? A key argument of this chapter is that climate change is not gender-neutral, and it has become increasingly necessary for Bangladesh and Nepal to learn from one another in order to build gender-sensitive strategies that are cognizant of the needs of rural women.

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