Page, Edward, 1968-. (2012) Give it up for climate change : a defence of the beneficiary pays principle. International Theory, Vol.4 (No.2). pp. 300-330. ISSN 1752-9719

Text WRAP_Page_InternationalTheory2012Final4.pdf Restricted to Repository staff only until 1 August 2013. Download (607Kb)

Abstract

This article focuses on the normative problem of establishing how the burdens associated with implementing policies designed to prevent, or manage, climate change should be shared amongst states involved in ongoing international climate change negotiations. This problem has three key features: identifying the nature and extent of the burdens that need to be borne; identifying the type of agent that should be allocated these burdens; and distributing amongst the particular ‘tokens’ of the relevant ‘agent type’ climatic burdens according to principles that none could reasonably reject. The article defends a key role in climatic burden-sharing policy for the principle that states benefiting most from activities that cause climate change should bear the greatest burden in terms of the costs of preventing dangerous climate change. I outline two versions of this ‘beneficiary pays’ principle; examine the strengths and weakness of each version; and explore how the most plausible version (which I call the ‘unjust enrichment’ account) could be operationalized in the context of global climate governance.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	J Political Science > JZ International relations Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Climatic changes -- Government policy, Climate change mitigation, International cooperation
Journal or Publication Title:	International Theory
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	1752-9719
Date:	July 2012
Volume:	Vol.4
Number:	No.2
Number of Pages:	31
Page Range:	pp. 300-330
Identification Number:	10.1017/S175297191200005X
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	Uppsala universitet
References:	Adger, W.N. (2010), ‘Climate Change, Human Well-being and Insecurity’, New Political Economy 15(2): 275-92. Allen, M.R. and Lord, R. (2004), ‘The Blame Game: Who will pay for the damaging consequences of climate change’, Nature 432, 2 December: 551-2. Anwander, N. (2005), ‘Contributing and Benefiting: Two Grounds for Duties to the Victims of Injustice’, Ethics & International Affairs 19(1): 39-45. Baer, P., G. Fieldman, T. Athanasiou and S. Kartha (2008), ‘Greenhouse Development Rights: towards an equitable framework for global climate policy’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs 21(4): 649-69. Birks, P. (2001), ‘Unjust Enrichment and Wrongful Enrichment’, Texas Law Review 79: 1767-94. Boden, T.A., G. Marland and R.J. Andres (2011), Global, Regional, and National Fossil-Fuel CO2 Emissions, Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, doi 10.3334/CDIAC/00001_V2011 Butt, D. (2007), ‘On benefiting from injustice’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 37(1): 129-52. Butt, D. (2009), Rectifying International Injustice: Principles of Compensation and Restitution Between Nations, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Caney, S. (2005), ‘Cosmopolitan Justice, Responsibility, and Global Climate Change’, Leiden Journal of International Law 18(4), 747-75. Caney, S. (2006) ‘Environmental Degradation, Reparations, and the Moral Significance of History’, Journal of Social Philosophy 37(3): 464-82. Caney, S. (2010) ‘Climate Change and the Duties of the Advantaged’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 13(1): 203-28. Conway, T. and Tans, P. (2012), ‘Recent Global CO2’, in Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (Boulder, CO: United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association): http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/global.html. Dellink, R., Den Elzen, M, Aiking, H., Bergsma, E. and Berkhout, F. (2009) ’Sharing the burden of financing adaptation to climate change’, Global Environmental Change 19: 411-21. Den Elzen, M., Schaeffer, M. And P.L. Lucas (2005) ‘Differentiating future commitments on the basis of countries’ relative historical responsibility for climate change’, Climatic Change 71: 277–301 European Union (2009) ‘Decision No 406/2009/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the effort of Member States to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to meet the Community’s greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments up to 2020, Official Journal of the European Union, L140, 5 June: 136-48. Feinberg, J. (1990) The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law: Volume 4: Harmless Wrongdoing (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Gosseries, A. (2004), ‘Historical Emissions and Free-Riding’, Ethical Perspectives 11(1): 36-60. Klimchuk, D. (2007), ‘The Scope and Structure of Unjust Enrichment’, University of Toronto Law Journal 57(4): 795-817. Kunte, A., Hamilton, K., Dixon, J. and Clemens, M. (1998) ‘Estimating National Wealth: Methodology and Results.’ Environment Department Papers (No.57) (Washington, DC: World Bank). Meyer, L. and D. Roser (2010), ‘Climate Justice and Historical Emissions’, Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy 13(1): 229-53. Miller, D. (2001), ‘Distributing Responsibilities’, The Journal of Political Philosophy 9(4): 453-71. Miller, D. (2009), ‘The Tanner Lectures on Human Values’, in G.B. Peterson (ed) The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, pp.119-56. Neumayer, E. (2000), ‘In Defence of Historical Responsibility for Greenhouse Gas Emissions’, Ecological Economics 33: 185-92. Oxfam International (2009), Hang Together or Separately? How global co-operation is key to a fair and adequate climate deal at Copenhagen (Oxfam Briefing Paper 128). London: Oxfam International. http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp128-hang-together-separately-summary-0906.pdf Page, E.A. (2006) Climate Change, Justice and Future Generations. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Page, E.A. (2008) ‘Distributing the burdens of climate change’, Environmental Politics, 17(4): 556-75. Page, E.A. (2011) ‘Climatic Justice and Atmospheric Burdens’, The Monist 94(3): 412-32. Parfit, D. (1984) Reasons and Persons, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Parry, M.L., Lowe, J. and Hanson, C. (2009) ‘Overshoot, Adapt and Recover’, Nature 458: 1102-3. Parry, M.L., O. Canziani and J.P. Palutikof, J.P (2007), ‘Technical Summary’, in M.Parry, O. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P. van der Linden and C. Hanson (eds) Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.23-78. Posner, E. and Weisbach, D. (2010). Climate Change Justice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Shue, H. (1993), ‘Subsistence Emissions and Luxury Emissions’, Law & Policy, 15 (1):39-59. Shue, H. (1999), ‘Global environment and international inequality’, International Affairs 75(3), 531-45. Shue, H. (2011), ‘Face Reality? After You!-A Call for Leadership on Climate Change’, Ethics and International Affairs 25(1): 17-26. Singer, P. (2002), One World: The ethics of globalization. London: Yale University Press. Solomon, S., D. Qin and M. Manning (2007), ‘Technical Summary’, in S. Solomon, D. Qin, Manning, M, Maarquis, K. Averyt, M. Tignor, H. Miller, Jr. and Z. Chen (eds) Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.19-91. Stamas, M. (2010), ‘Cromer v. Murphy: The Fifth Circuit Grapples with Its Role in Hearing Climate Change Tort Claims’, Ecology Law Quarterly 37: 711-20. Starkey, R. (2011), ‘Assessing common(s) arguments for an equal per capita allocation’, The Geographical Journal, 177(2): 112–126. Stern, N. (2007), The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (1992), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Geneva: UNFCCC, 1-24, http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/conveng.pdf. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (1998), Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Geneva: UNFCCC, 1-20, http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.pdf. United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (2011), The Cancun Agreements: Outcome of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (Decision 1/CP.16): http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2010/cop16/eng/07a01.pdf. United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (2012), Report of the Conference of the Parties on its seventeenth session, held in Durban from 28 November to 11 December 2011 Geneva: UNFCCC: http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2011/cop17/eng/09a01.pdf. World Bank (2010a), The Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change: A Synthesis Report, Washington, DC: World Bank. World Bank (2010b), World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change, Washington, DC: World Bank. World Bank (2011), The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium, Washington, DC: World Bank. World Resources Institute (WRI) (2012) Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (Washington, DC: WRI) (http://cait.wri.org).
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/50667

Request changes to a record

Actions (login required)

View Item