Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "Roberts and Parks"
How to Balance Climate Justice with Collective Responsibility?
Everyone is responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that contribute to global climate change, but some much more so than others. In an atmosphere that doesn’t care whether GHGs come from the rich or the poor, how do we balance the need for drastic emissions reductions with a mutually agreeable sense of fairness? In chapter five of their book A Climate Injustice, Roberts and Parks explain four approaches from which to consider the question of fairness: grandfathering, carbon intensity, historic responsibility, and emissions per capita. Each perspective has differing implications for developed countries (the global North) and developing countries (the global South). Grandfathering allows a country to make its GHG reductions relative to a baseline from their past emissions. The Kyoto Protocol is an example, as countries agreed to reduce … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues
Fair Share
Harriet Bulkeley and Peter Newell (2010) explain the contemporary politics of global climate change with accounts of suspicion, inequality, and skepticism. Pointing fingers and holding responsibilities are things involved with every political issue throughout history. When it comes to global climate change, the unethical implications behind actions of developed countries make it easy to see who is responsible for causing, and in turn, preventing climate change from reaching drastic tribulations. Evidence shows that developed countries are indeed most responsible for the causes of climate change; the irony in this is that developing countries will be most affected by impacts of the changing climate. Bulkeley and Newell (2010) suggest “This sense of injustice derives from the fact that those who have contributed least to the problem of climate change in the past, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Environmental Politics
It is Time to take Responsibility and ACT!
Every nation state, and every person, holds some degree of responsibility for anthropogenic climate change. In the world today, one cannot live without leaving an impact. However, the answer is not as simple as that because responsibility is not distributed equally. It is crucial to recognize the vastly different emissions of states. In that light, those states who have contributed most to the problem ought to be charged with the task of leading the nation states towards more sustainable economies and ways of life. This requires the cooperation of states who hold the most power in the international system, who currently feel little direct effects of climate change, and who are stubbornly stuck in their gas guzzling ways. Thus, persuading these states to take responsibility for their contribution to climate … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
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