Climate change is among the most significant moral and environmental issues of our era. It is an issue with certain features that seek attention for it to be perceived as essentially a justice and ethical problem. According to Donald and Taylor (2015), some of these features include:
Initially, it is an issue that is being facilitated by some nations and people in one portion of the world that are putting other nations and people at significant risk in another section of the world that have done little to facilitate the problem.
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Second is that the harms to those at the most significant risks are not just inconveniences but is an issue of life and death, as well as harm of natural resources on which life is dependent upon.
Third, the process of climate change is an issue in which many of the individuals that are at the highest risk can do little to safeguard themselves. Therefore, the best chance they have is that of high-emitting countries and individuals that are causing the problem, seeing that they have obligations and duties to the victims in order to avoid harming them.
The fourth aspect includes the fact that since carbon dioxide is well-assorted in the atmosphere, all the human activities are significantly facilitating the rise in atmospheric concentrations of CO 2 . Therefore, a universal solution necessitates all people and nations to decrease their emissions of greenhouse gases to the safe levels. Thus, those emitting high levels of greenhouse gases ought to be willing to decrease their emissions to levels that are deemed to be safe.
For these particular reasons, climate change ought to be understood as a fundamental conundrum in justice and ethics, an insight that has momentous relevance for the formulation of policies since, among other things, high-emitting nations may not set climate change policies solely on economic self-interest. They ought to consider the ethical responsibilities, especially towards the vulnerable populations or those that will be most affected. The real climate change challenge is ethical, as well as ethical consideration of political legitimacy, virtue, welfare, rights, justice, community, and humanity’s link to nature are at the center of the decisions to be made in regards to the policies. We do not resolve the climate change problems if we increment the pace of mass extinction, enable genocide against vulnerable populations, and also inflict disaster on forthcoming generations (Gardiner, 2016). If the public policy disregards such issues, the related solutions are rendered obsolete.
The inequities in power and wealth are the epitome of the moral and ethical issues that are associated with climate equity and justice. This is especially in regard to the types of decisions to be made and how the resources ought to be managed to optimize the mitigation process. Conservative politicians and corporate systems have consciously peddled climate denial for an extended period and depict malpractice and malfeasance in regard to research and political ethics (Lynn, 2015). Similarly, the rising wealth inequities showcase that the elites have little to no incentive to change or act for the good of the planet or the public. This will increment the political and ethical crevices between climate haves and have-nots.
With these in mind, there ought to be comprehensive and holistic strategies to the mitigation of the climate change process, particularly concerning the policies formulated and the aspects it targets. The policy and decision-making process should also be subject to ethical inquiry principally in regard to who should be financially responsible for funding the adaptation measures in vulnerable nations that have done little to cause the issue, as well as the responsibilities of subnational individuals, organizations, businesses, and governments to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases.
References
Donald A. Brown and Prue Taylor (Eds.). (2015). Ethics and Climate Change. A Study of National Commitments IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. xxx + 170 pp.
Gardiner, S. (2016). Why climate change is an ethical problem. Retrieved 1 October 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/01/09/why-climate-change-is-an-ethical-problem/
Lynn, S. W. (2015). The ethics of climate change: what we owe people – and the rest of the planet. Retrieved 1 October 2020, from https://theconversation.com/the-ethics-of-climate-change-what-we-owe-people-and-the-rest-of-the-planet-51785
