Spring 2011 (25.1) Feature

Globalizing Responsibility for Climate Change

How is the just assignment of climate change mitigation costs related to the fair allocation of burdens for climate change adaptation? In distributing the costs associated with climate change, most scholars have focused exclusively upon mitigation burdens, which reduce ongoing contributions to climate change, primarily through greenhouse gas abatement efforts. Few consider the distribution of adaptation costs, which concern projects that seek to minimize harm from human-induced climate change. This article explores both, grounding each in the justice framework appropriate to each activity, with mitigation efforts based in distributive justice and adaptation activities in corrective justice, and outlines an overarching account of responsibility that! links the two. From such an account, it suggests, a more coherent view of the tradeoffs between mitigation and adaptation is possible, enabling a more integrative policy framework for linking ongoing efforts in one category with required burdens in the other.

To read or purchase the full text of this article, click here.

More in this issue

Spring 2011 (25.1) Review

Moral Dilemmas of Modern War: Torture, Assassination, and Blackmail in an Age of Asymmetric Conflict by Michael L. Gross [Full Text]

Michael Gross believes that much contemporary warfare is so different from past armed conflicts that many of the old moral and legal prohibitions should no ...

Spring 2011 (25.1) Essay

Middle-Ground Ethics: Can One Be Politically Realistic Without Being a Political Realist? [Full Text]

Thinking about international affairs has oscillated between idealism and realism throughout the modern period. Moralists continue to search for a way to combine what is ...

Spring 2011 (25.1) Review

Briefly Noted

This section contains a round-up of recent notable books in the field of international affairs.