An Aretaic Jurisprudence Approach to the Character of the Secretary-General of the United Nations as a Norm Entrepreneur to Save the Earth from the Adverse Impact of Climate Change

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-46
Author(s):  
Ratna Juwita
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
General Will ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Virtuous Character ◽  
Combat Climate Change ◽  
Norm Entrepreneur

Abstract In 2015, the Paris Agreement was adopted to strengthen the legal continuum to combat climate change. The Secretary-General as the chief administrative, world premier diplomat and norm entrepreneur of the UN has to diplomatically persuade all member States to ratify the international legal instruments. This research suggests that the Secretary-General must possess virtuous character in order to carry on the mandate of the UN Charter, especially as a norm entrepreneur to address the issue of climate change. Aretaic jurisprudence approach is used to interpret further the character that has to be possessed by the Secretary-General. Based on the Aristotelian virtues as the core philosophy of aretaic jurisprudence, the Secretary-General has to possess the virtues of courage and temperance. In the fight against climate change, a virtuous Secretary-General will play the pivotal role as a norm entrepreneur in inviting and persuading all member States to cooperate in unity.

scholarly journals KONSEP PERTANIAN PULAU-PULAU KECIL BERBASIS GUGUS PULAU MENGHADAPI PERUBAHAN IKLIM GLOBAL DI PROVINSI MALUKU

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Agustinus Kastanya
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Agroforestry System ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Small Islands ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Nationally Determined Contributions ◽  
Concept Framework

Indonesia has already agreed to and submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) to the UNFCCC, to reduce emission gases by 29% on its own and by 41% with outside help by 2030. This step follows the Paris Agreement (COP 21) to reduce world emission gases to prevent the earth warming by 20C . Maluku is characterized by small islands, narrow and short watersheds and needs an innovative approach to development. Multi landscape based development of small islands means using island clusters, watersheds, ecological conditions and socio-economic conditions. An agricultural concept for small islands based on multi landscape plans like green economics has been developed in 3 base concepts : (1) conceptual framework; (2) macro concept framework; (3) micro concept framework. The multi landscape format integrates water catchments and RTRWP/K which are organized into the smallest management units in accordance with indigenous rights. The complete landscape is managed using an agroforestry system for conservation of the watersheds, islands, cluster groups and seas. Thus, the agricultural concept can deliver productivity and services to meet the needs of the community and the environment as well as for mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.

scholarly journals Two Faces of Foreign Affairs Federalism and What They Mean for Climate Change Mitigation

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 274-278
Author(s):  
Jean Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Outer Face ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Combat Climate Change ◽  
International Engagement ◽  
Change Mitigation

President Trump has done the impossible: he has made the international community enthusiastic about U.S. federalism. Even as they express dismay at Trump's plan to abandon the Paris Agreement, foreign leaders and internationalists have praised the efforts of  U.S. states and cities to combat climate change mitigation in accordance with the Agreement's goals. These leaders are responding to what I will call the outer face of foreign affairs federalism—the direct international engagement undertaken by U.S. states and cities. This outer face has gained visibility in recent years, spurred on not only by the exigencies of climate but also by developments in legal practice. Less noticed internationally but of great practical importance is the inner face of foreign affairs federalism—the ways in which U.S. states and cities interact with the federal government. In this contribution, I first describe these two faces of foreign affairs federalism as they relate to climate and then suggest some ways in which foreign leaders and internationalists could expand the outer face and respond to the inner face.

Indigenous Belief Systems, Science, and Resource Extraction: Climate Change Attitudes in Ecuador

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd A. Eisenstadt ◽  
Karleen Jones West
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Systems Science ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
Traditional Beliefs ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Combat Climate Change ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Climate Change Attitudes

Indigenous people around the world have been particularly vocal about climate change as a challenge to their cosmovision—or traditional worldview—resulting in demands for protection of the earth as part of their core beliefs. Is this because indigenous people are the most vulnerable, and feel the impact of climate change more directly? Or is it because of the centrality of the earth to their traditional beliefs? Using survey evidence from Ecuador, we examine how indigenous cosmovision, science, and vulnerability influence the belief that climate change exists. On the basis of one-on-one interviews with indigenous leaders in Ecuador, we argue that both traditional beliefs and Western science inform citizen views of climate change. We discuss the implications of these findings, arguing that rather than competing with science, the Kichwa-based cosmovision complements Western scientific efforts to combat climate change. We also find that proximity to oil extraction is an important determinant of belief in climate change in Ecuador, suggesting that conceptualizations of vulnerability should be tailored to the particular experiences of individuals.

Earth Ethics for Education

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarence W. Joldersma
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Ethical Orientation ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The World ◽  
Education Needs ◽  
Global Environmental Issues

Education needs an ethical orientation that can help it grapple better with global environmental issues such as climate change and decreasing biodiversity, something called earth ethics. The term ethics is used in an unusual manner, to mean a normativity more basic than concrete norms, principles, or rules for living. The idea of earth is also used in an unusual way, as a kind of concealing, a refusal to disclose itself, while at the same time, constituting a kind of interference with the familiarity of the world. The idea of earth plays on the contrast between living on earth and living in the world. The latter involves the familiar concerns and actions of culture and work, of politics and economics. Earth ethics becomes a call to responsibility coming from the earth—a call to let the earth and earthlings be, to acknowledge their refusal to answer our questions or fit easily into our worldly projects, and to recognize their continuing mystery as beings with their own intrinsic worth. The idea of earth ethics is developed through attending to a set of human experiences. First is an experience of gratefulness toward the earth. This gratefulness not only reveals our finitude, but also our indebtedness to the grace-filled support the earth continually gives us for our worldly projects and concerns. This reveals earth as our home, a dwelling we share with other earthlings. This reveals earth’s fundamental fragility. What seems solid and dependable from a worldly perspective shows up as vulnerability from an earthly viewpoint. The experiences of gratefulness to and fragility of the earth gives rise to feeling a call to responsibility, the core of earth ethics. Earth ethics is a call of responsibility to the earth, one that grows out of our debt of gratitude and the earth’s fragility. It is this normative call that might guide education in its grappling with environmental issues.

Backsliding is likely on Paris climate deal

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Legal Issue ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
The West ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Paris Climate Agreement ◽  
Combat Climate Change ◽  
Political Economic

Subject The Paris climate agreement. Significance The Paris agreement is the first major international pact to combat climate change since the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. If implemented, the pact envisions robust national efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the adverse effects of global warming, with significant political, economic, social and sectoral implications. Impacts Paris accord transparency measures will facilitate carbon divestment campaigns in the West. Aviation and shipping emissions are likely to be addressed in a future Paris accord review conference. Migration from climate change-vulnerable states will reopen the legal issue of internationally recognised 'climate refugee' status.

Climate Diplomacy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Light
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Core ◽  
Climate Stability ◽  
Current State ◽  
Common But Differentiated Responsibilities ◽  
Copenhagen Accord ◽  
Global Agreement

This chapter explores the ethical dimensions of diplomatic efforts to form a global agreement on climate change. It offers a brief historical background on the core multilateral climate negotiation body, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and highlights some contentious moral elements of these negotiations. In particular, it explores the complex ways in which the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” (CBDR) has driven debates on how burdens for mitigation, adaptation, and finance should be distributed between developed and developing countries. It then considers the transformation in these climate negotiations since 2009, including the move toward a bottom-up architecture as part from the Copenhagen Accord to the Paris Agreement. Finally, it assesses the current state of climate diplomacy in relation to broader diplomatic priorities, arguing that climate diplomacy must be elevated alongside other top-tier foreign policy issues today in order to eventually achieve some level of climate stability.

scholarly journals Climate Change and Justice between Nonoverlapping Generations

1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Karnein
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Intergenerational Relationships ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Intergenerational Justice ◽  
Indirect Reciprocity ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Common Ownership ◽  
Present Generation ◽  
Combat Climate Change

It is becoming less and less controversial that we ought to aggressively combat climate change. One main reason for doing so is concern for future generations, as it is they who will be the most seriously affected by it. Surprisingly, none of the more prominent deontological theories of intergenerational justice can explain why it is wrong for the present generation to do very little to stop worsening the problem. This paper discusses three such theories, namely indirect reciprocity, common ownership of the earth and human rights. It shows that while indirect reciprocity and common ownership are both too undemanding, the human rights approach misunderstands the nature of our intergenerational relationships, thereby capturing either too much or too little about what is problematic about climate change. The paper finally proposes a way to think about intergenerational justice that avoids the pitfalls of the traditional theories and can explain what is wrong with perpetuating climate change. 

The World Is Open to Climate Change Litigation

2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 83-84
Author(s):  
Francesco Sindico
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The Core ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
International Economic Relations ◽  
Nationally Determined Contributions

There is no doubt that the discourse around climate change has matured over the years and has become one of the central features of international relations. We all know of the international legal regime that has developed to deal with climate change, starting from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and finishing with the Paris Agreement. Climate change is also either at the core or on the fringes of many other international debates, from international security to international economic relations. In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a (yet again) stark warning alerting to the risks of not moving towards a 1.5 degrees goal, rather than a 2.0 degrees as the Paris Agreement seems to be suggesting. The truth is that the trend countries are moving toward with their pledges in their nationally determined contributions is not going to meet the 2.0 objective, let alone the 1.5 degrees objective. Against this background, it is not surprising that sectors of society interested in pursuing stronger climate change policies have explored multiple governance routes to take forward their agenda. This has led to the emergence of a polycentric and multilevel governance in the field of climate change. It is within this greater picture that climate change litigation has become a key facet in the fight against climate change.

scholarly journals Can the Paris Agreement Help Climate Change Litigation and Vice Versa?

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lennart Wegener
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Dynamic Interaction ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Core Element ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
The Core ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
The Law ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractDomestic climate change litigation is prospering across the globe to the extent of becoming a transnational phenomenon of growing importance. At the international level the Paris Agreement, although still in its infancy, has been established as the core element of the climate change governance framework. This article explores the still opaque relationship between domestic climate change litigation and the Paris Agreement. It is argued that dynamic interaction between domestic litigation and the Paris Agreement may improve the overall efficacy of both regimes. On the one hand, an examination of the Paris Agreement's architecture and provisions reveals pathways that are already being used or can be explored further in litigation. On the other hand, litigation can assist and complement the Paris Agreement with regard to its implementation and progress towards its overall goals. The result may deliver more than a multi-level perspective on climate change law. As it captures the law in action on different levels, the proposed ‘cross-level’ approach has due regard to the implications of the mutual supportiveness or complementarity of legal tools. It also thereby responds to the concern of whether the law can be of significant benefit in addressing complex global issues like climate change.

Carbon budgets under multiple climate targets

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Avrutin ◽  
Philip Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
Carbon Emission ◽  
Carbon Budget ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Climate Targets ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Global Mean

<p>A central goal of climate science and policy is to establish and follow carbon emissions pathways towards a single metric of changes in the Earth system. Currently, this most often means restricting global mean surface warming to 1.5 and 2 °C, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. However, anthropogenic emissions do not lead solely to increases in global mean temperature, but also cause other changes to the Earth system. This study aims to quantify carbon emission pathways that are consistent with additional climate targets, and explore the impact of applying these additional climate targets on the future carbon budget. Here, we consider ocean acidification, although eventually multiple additional climate targets could be considered. </p><p>Emission of carbon dioxide leads to ocean acidification, since the ocean is a significant carbon sink in the climate system, absorbing an estimated 16 to 30% of yearly anthropogenic carbon emissions (Friedlingstein et al., 2020). Increased ocean acidification threatens ocean biodiversity, specifically coral reef systems and calcifying organisms, with impacts up the food web. The effects of acidification extend towards human systems, in part due to the impact on fisheries: Narita et al. (2012) estimate that the loss of mollusk production alone due to acidification could cost 100 billion USD globally following a business-as-usual trajectory towards 2100.</p><p>Despite the far-reaching damage caused by ocean acidification, there has been little successful effort to explicitly address ocean acidification in climate policy apart from the Paris Agreement warming targets of 1.5 and 2°C (Harrould-Kolieb and Herr, 2012). Although these targets mitigate many elements of dangerous climate change, Schleussner et al. (2016) project that carbon emission pathways consistent with 1.5°C cause 90% of coral reef areas between 66°N and 66°S to be at risk of long-term degradation in all but a single model run.  </p><p>Calculating a future carbon budget based on a temperature goal alone is subject to significant uncertainty, largely due to uncertainties in response of the climate system to forcing and natural carbon sequestration. Here, results from a large observation-constrained model ensemble are presented for pathways that achieve multiple climate targets. The uncertainty in the resulting future carbon budget, compared to the budget for temperature-only targets, is discussed. A secondary aim is to establish a pair of mean ocean pH targets that are analogous with the Paris Agreement targets for global mean warming. </p><p>References </p><p>Friedlingstein P. et al., 2020, Earth System Science Data, DOI: 10.5194/essd-12-3269-2020</p><p>Narita, D. et al., 2012, Climate Change, DOI: 10.1007/s10584-011-0383-3</p><p>Harrould-Kolieb E.R. et al., 2012, Climate Policy, DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2012.620788</p><p>Schleussner C-F. et al., 2016, Earth System Dynamics, DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2012.620788</p>

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