Values In Climate Policy

Description

Children born today in the Maldives may someday have to abandon their homeland. Rising seas, caused by climate change, could swallow most of their tiny island nation within their lifetime. Their fate symbolizes the double inequity at the heart of climate change: those who have contributed the least to climate change will suffer the most from it. All is not lost, however. The scale and impact of climate change depends on the policies that people choose. How quickly will we eliminate our greenhouse gas emissions? How will we do it? Who will pay for it? What will we protect through adaptation? How will we weigh the fortunes of future generations and the natural world against our own? Answers to questions like these reflect a constellation of value judgments that deserve close scrutiny. In addition to providing essential background on the science, economics, and politics of climate change, this book explores the values at stake in climate policy with the aim of shrinking the gap between climate ethics and climate policy. Contents......Page 6 Preface......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction. The Maldives and the Moral Challenge of Climate Change......Page 12 Chapter 1. The Physical Science of Climate Change......Page 18 Chapter 2. The Economics of Climate Change......Page 42 Chapter 3. Values in Climate Politics......Page 68 Chapter 4. The Moral Foundations of Climate Action......Page 94 Chapter 5. Crosscutting Issues in Climate Policy......Page 116 Chapter 6. Values in Mitigation Policy......Page 142 Chapter 7. Values in Adaptation Policy......Page 164 Chapter 8. Intergenerational Justice and Climate Policy......Page 190 Chapter 9. Nature, Values, and Climate Policy......Page 218 Bibliography......Page 242 Index......Page 268