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Overview
Climatechangeandglobaljustice
Darrell Moellendorf∗
In this article, I examine matters concerning justice and climate change in light
of current work in global justice. I briefly discuss some of the most important
contemporary work by political philosophers and theorist on global justice and
relate it to various considerations regarding justice and climate change. After
brieflysurveyingtheinternationaltreatycontext,Icriticallydiscussseveralissues,
includingclimatechangeandhumanrights,responsibilityforhistoricalemissions
and the polluter-pays principle, the ability to pay principle, grandfathering
entitlements to emit greenhouse gasses, equal per capita emissions entitlements,
the right to sustainable development, and responsibility for financing adaptation
to climate change. This set of issues does not exhaust the list of considerations of
global justice and climate change, but it includes some of the most important of
those considerations. ©2012JohnWiley&Sons,Ltd.
Howtocitethis article:
WIREsClimChange2012,3:131–143.doi:10.1002/wcc.158
CLIMATECHANGEANDGLOBAL The section on Global Justice summarizes some
JUSTICE of the recent work in global justice that is relevant
here. The section on The UNFCCC Treaty discusses
Anthropogenicclimatechangeiswidelyrecognized features of the international treaty context in which
as a global problem affecting the lives and climate change negotiations are occurring. After that
well being of millions of people, the stability of the section on Climate Change and Human Rights
ecosystems, and the existence of many natural species. discusses the relationship between climate change and
Myassumption in this article is that justice involves human rights. The section on Responsibility for His-
moral considerations regarding relationships between toric Emissions discusses responsibility for historical
peopleorbetweenpeoplemediatedbyinstitutionsand emissions and the polluter-pays-principle. The section
policies, and that therefore this is the case with global on Ability to Pay discusses the ability-to-pay prin-
justice as well. There are important moral questions ciple. The section on Grandfathering discusses the
regarding the effects of climate change on ecosystems, idea of grandfathering, namely that a state’s entitle-
biodiversity, and species.a But I shall not discuss these ment to emit CO should be based on its historic
as matters of global justice. 2
levels of emissions. The section on Equal Emissions
My goal here is to review the most important Entitlements discusses the claim that each person has
b
issues concerning climate change and global justice. an equal entitlement to emit greenhouse gases within
Thisis by no means, however, an exhaustive survey of the limits established by the aims of mitigation in
this growing and important literature. I cannot hope general. The section on The Right to Sustainable
to provide that here. In summarizing and commenting Development summarizes an account of the right to
on the various issues, my aim is twofold: the first is sustainable development. And, the section on Adap-
to introduce the issues to readers who are unfamiliar tation is devoted to a discussion of global justice and
with them; the second is to stimulate both readers adaptation policy.
who are already familiar with some of these debates
as well as those who are just becoming familiar with GLOBALJUSTICE
them to further critical reflection.
Efforts to develop and criticize theories of global jus-
∗Correspondence to: dmoellen@mail.sdsu.edu tice have recently developed into major research pro-
c
Department of Philosophy, San Diego State University, San Diego, gramsforseveralpoliticalphilosophersandtheorists.
CA,USA It is impossible adequately to summarize all of the
Volume3,March/April2012 ©2012JohnWiley&Sons,Ltd. 131
wires.wiley.com/climatechange
Overview
important details in the debates that have been occur- that they are either less strong12 or less demanding.10
ring, but I shall point to a few areas where those The content of the latter position is similar to one
debates are important to the concerns of justice and offered by some cosmopolitans, who defend only
climate change. duties to meet minimum needs.2 Many cosmopoli-
The kind of justice in philosophical debates tan positions take duties of distributive justice to
about global justice that is relevant to our theme is require significantly more than that. One family of
best thought of as social justice. Several closely related such positions holds that natural resources are right-
questions taken up in these debates seem directly fully commonly owned by all the Earth’s inhabitants,
relevant to climate change policy. These include the notmerelysomeofthosewhowereluckyenoughtobe
following: Do robust duties of justice exist between born near or on top of them; and that therefore some
people that do not live in the same country? In virtue or all of the revenues collected from resource extrac-
of what(if anything) are there such duties? And which 1,6,17
tion should be shared globally. Other positions
principles best characterize those duties? include a version of equality of opportunity applied
Cosmopolitansarguethatrobustdutiesofjustice 3,5
globally. Still others maintain that the difference
exist between noncompatriots.1–9 Noncosmopolitans principle, which John Rawls famously defends for
of various stripes either deny the existence of such domestic justice, and which requires that inequalities
dutiesofjusticeorassertthattheyaresubstantiallyless in wealth and income maximize benefits to the least
robust than those between compatriots.10–16,d There 1,4,6
advantage people, applies globally.
are a variety of reasons for the noncosmopolitan posi- Millions of people are already at risk of extreme
tion but four have attracted the most attention. One weather and flooding. Currently around 344 million
is the claim that duties of egalitarian distributive jus- people are exposed to tropical cyclones, 521 million
tice exist between people only if they are subject to a to floods, 130 million to droughts, and 2.3 million to
commoncoercivelegal structure,10,14,16 and currently 18
landslides. Climate change is expected to increase
states are the only structures of this sort. Another is these numbers very significantly. About 10% of the
that the content of duties of egalitarian distributive world’s population lives at an elevation of 10 m or
justice can be provided only by a cultural understand- less above sea-level.19 Hundreds of millions of people
ing of goods, which understanding only nations are are at risk of inundation from tropical storms and
11
capable of providing. A third is that egalitarian rising sea levels. But the poor living in the mega deltas
distributive justice would conflict with national self- of North Africa and Asia are particularly vulnerable.
11
determination. And the fourth is that state policy ‘People living in the Ganges Delta and lower Man-
remainsthemostimportantfactorinthewell-beingof hattan share flood risks associated with rising seas
15
persons. Thesearenotmutuallyexclusivepositions. levels. They do not share the same vulnerabilities. The
And noncosmopolitans sometimes affirm more than reason: the Ganges Delta is marked by high levels of
one of these. 19
povertyandlowlevelsofinfrastructuralprotection’.
There are also a variety of cosmopolitan posi- Thedevastationcausedbydroughtandfloodingcould
tions, providing different resources for responding to result in long term setbacks to human development in
the noncosmopolitan positions. Some cosmopolitans manypoorsocieties.18
hold that duties of social justice are owed by each Climate change related threats are not simply
person to all other persons, in which case the limits of acts of God, but the result of energy use and mul-
state coercion and commonnationalculturesestablish tiple uncoordinated energy policies in countries and
noprincipled limit to duties, although the latter might provinces throughout the world. Historically, how-
3,8,9
affect their content somewhat. A variant of this ever, greenhouse gas emissions have been highest in
viewfocusesprimarilyonhumanrights,whichpropo- theindustrializedworld.‘WhenpeopleinanAmerican
nents take to be universal and to include rights to sub- city turn on the airconditioning or people in Europe
sistence, which are violated by international practices drive their cars, their actions have consequences.
7
thatrecognizethelegitimacyofcorruptgovernments. Thoseconsequenceslinkthemtoruralcommunitiesin
Other cosmopolitans accept that duties of social jus- Bangladesh, farmers in Ethiopia, and slum dwellers in
tice are not owed to everyone, but that the set of Haiti’.18 Energy use brings tremendous benefits, but
people bound by duties of justice is larger than merely whenfossil fuels are used it also brings significant cli-
those who are subject to the same framework of legal matechangerelatedcosts.Theprivilegeofusingfossil
coercion; it includes also those who are members of a fuels has mostly fallen to the relatively rich of the
commoneconomicassociation,whichexistsglobally.5 world, while the burdens of climate change are falling
Some noncosmopolitans believe that duties of more heavily on the poor. The question of who is
distributive justice exist between noncompatriots but responsible for the costs of climate change, including
132 ©2012JohnWiley&Sons,Ltd. Volume3,March/April2012
WIREsClimate Change Climate change and global justice
the costs of adapting to it, would appear then to be a the adverse effects of climate change’.21 Paragraph 4
significant concern of global justice. opens by invoking ‘a right to...sustainable develop-
Any effective international treaty for climate ment’ and closes by requiring international policy to
changemitigationwillhavetolowerglobalCO emis- take‘intoaccountthateconomicdevelopmentisessen-
2
sions very dramatically. Emissions must be 50–85% tial for adopting measures to address climate change’.
below2000levelsby2050inordertosecureareason- These principles guide the course of subsequent
able chance of keeping planetary warming to 2 ◦C.20 deliberation with the net effect that acceptable
(Whether this warming limit is a morally appropriate additional treaties under the auspices of the
one is a question of how much climate change we UNFCCC must lay heavier burdens on developed
should avoid and ultimately a question of intergener- country parities and be especially solicitous of the
e
ational justice and beyond the scope of this article. ) development needs of developing parties. This is fully
To do this the cost of fossil fuels relative to renew- consistent with accounts of global just that require
ables will have to increase. But human development either eradicating severe poverty or reducing global
is very energy intensive. Electrification makes possible inequalities. A group of developed country parties is
hospitals and schools with modern equipment. Man- compiled in Annex I of the Convention. This group
ufacturing uses energy but also provides better paying includes 40 states and the European Union, including
jobs than can usually be had in rural areas. Transport the western Europeanstates, the USA, Canada, Japan,
of manufactured goods consumes massive amounts Australia, and New Zealand. This same set of states
of energy. A second important concern of global jus- is listed in Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol. Only
tice then is how an international treaty will assign the states in Annex B are assigned binding emission
mitigation costs, and in particular whether costs will reductions under the Protocol.
be assigned in a way that constrains poverty eradi- Cosmopolitans are likely to favor distinguishing
cating economic growth in the developing and least the burdens of responding to climate change in a
developed countries. waythatprovidesallowancestodevelopingcountries.
The Convention applies to a world characterized
THEUNITEDNATIONSFRAMEWORK by extreme poverty and global inequality. Economic
CONVENTIONONCLIMATECHANGE development can eradicate poverty but it is energy
TREATY intensive. Given current technology and energy
markets, the cheapest sources of energy are usually
The United Nations Framework Convention on fossil fuels, coal in particular. A climate change
Climate Change (UNFCCC), formed by international treaty that raises energy prices in the developing
treaty in 1992, is the international institution in world threatens to slow, or prevent, the process by
which, to date, all significant attempts to come to an which billions of people may be raised out of extreme
international agreement dealing with climate change poverty. Fundamentally, the Convention’s principles
haveoccurred. Both the treaty and the institution that distinguishing burdens of the developed and the
developed as a result of the treaty are called ‘The developing states is not about resource redistribution,
22
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate then, although it has been maligned as such. Rather
Change’. To distinguish these, I refer to the former as such principles serve to ensure that neither climate
‘the Convention’ and the latter as ‘the UNFCCC’. change nor a climate change treaty worsen the
The UNFCCC provides the institutional setting prospects for development for poor countries.
forinternationalnegotiationsandtheConventionpro- The list drawn up in 1992 at the time of writ-
vides a deliberative framework in a set of guiding ing of the Convention, however, does not include all
norms.Article3setsoutseveralprinciplestoguidethe of the states that are now among the group of most
achievement of the Convention’s objective. Paragraph highly developed. But any commitment to human
1stipulates that efforts should be distributed differen- development needs in developing and least developed
tially. It affirms assigning burdens to parties ‘on the countries will necessarily place very heavy burdens
basis of equity and in accordance with their common on developed states. Energy supply, industry, and
but differentiated responsibilities and respective capa- transport comprise over 50% of all greenhouse gas
bilities’. Paragraph 1 also states that, ‘the developed emissions. While forestry practices, including defor-
20
country Parties should take the lead in combating estation, and agriculture comprise over 30%. Emis-
climate change and the adverse effects thereof’.21 sionsinallofthesecategoriesareaffectedbyeconomic
Paragraph 2 requires full attention to ‘The specific development and rising populations in the developing
needs and special circumstances of developing Parties, world. In the absence of adopting additional miti-
especially those that are particularly vulnerable to gation strategies, emissions are projected to increase
Volume3,March/April2012 ©2012JohnWiley&Sons,Ltd. 133
wires.wiley.com/climatechange
Overview
23 living for himself and his family, including adequate
byanadditional40–110%between2000and2030.
Twothirdstothreequartersoftheincreaseisexpected food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous
25
to come from developing countries, where both eco- improvement of living conditions.
nomic and population growth are highest.23 Even
if global justice requires laying heavier burdens on Simon Caney argues that a central and
developed countries, an international treaty that ade- fundamental wrong of climate change is that it
26 g
quately mitigates climate change will eventually have will cause significant human rights violations. ,
to constrain the emissions of non-Annex I countries. Caney make this argument in relation to three key
rights: The right not to be arbitrarily deprived of
one’s life, the right not to have others cause serious
CLIMATECHANGEANDHUMAN threats to one’s health, and the right not to have
RIGHTS others deprive one of the means of subsistence.
These are broadly accepted rights, less demanding
In the absence of mitigation, climate change is pro- and less controversial than the rights enumerated
jected to have profound, often devastating effects, in the paragraphs of the human rights documents
on hundred of millions of people by the end of this cited above. Hence, Caney’s point is on the face of it
century. Human health is expected to suffer signifi- plausible.
cantly. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Human rights have figured prominently in the
Climate Change (IPCC), ‘The health status of mil- recent literature on global justice. Many cosmopoli-
lions of people is projected to be affected through, for tans have defended the importance of human rights
example, increases in malnutrition; increased deaths, in contrast to claims of states to sovereign control
diseases and injury due to extreme weather events; over the affairs within their borders.4 Others, as
increased burden of diarrheal disease; increased fre- noted above, have argued that human rights form
quencyofcardio-respiratorydiseases...andthealtered the basis of duties to reform the international state
20
spatial distribution of some infectious diseases’. For system to eradicate desperate poverty. So an account
hundreds of millions of people access to water and of the moral problems of climate change in terms of
food will become more difficult. By 2020 from 75 to the threats that it poses to human rights is consis-
250 million Africans are expected to suffer increased tent with a broadly cosmopolitan approach to global
water stress; and yields on rain fed farms may be justice.
20
reducedbyupto50% (p.50).AccordingtoaUnited There are, however, features of the employ-
Nations Human Development Programme (UNDP) ment of human rights in the context of climate
review of climate change projections, ‘Overall, cli- change that bear special scrutiny. As invoked by
mate change will lower the incomes and reduce the Caney, and several others, human rights are meant
opportunities of vulnerable populations. By 2080, to account as much for our duties to future genera-
the number of people at risk of hunger could reach tions as to people currently living in other countries.
600million—twice the number of people living in That is to say, human rights are said to account for
18
poverty in sub-Saharan Africa today’. our duties of intergenerational justice. There several
The calamities caused by climate change are important questions about whether human rights are
pertinent to protections offered by international the best way to account for our duties of intergen-
human rights documents. For example, Article 25, erational justice, but they elude the scope of this
paragraph 1, of the Universal Declaration of Human article.h
Rights states that,
Everyonehastherighttoastandardoflivingadequate RESPONSIBILITYFORHISTORIC
for the health and well-being of himself and of his EMISSIONS
family, including food, clothing, housing and medical
care and necessary social services, and the right to Both considerations of global justice and the
security in the event of unemployment, sickness, Convention’s language of ‘common but differentiated
disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of responsibilities’ have led some people to conclude
livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.24
that a morally acceptable international treaty should
Article 11 of International Covenant on distribute various responsibilities of states according
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights holds that, to their historic contribution of greenhouse gasses,
especially CO2 (because of its long atmospheric
The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize residence time), to the atmosphere.i This view invokes
the right of everyone to an adequate standard of aprinciple from other aspects of environmental policy
134 ©2012JohnWiley&Sons,Ltd. Volume3,March/April2012
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