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The Economics and Ethics of Human Induced Climate Change

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  • Clive L. Spash
  • Clemens Gattringer

Abstract

Human induced climate change poses a series of ethical challenges to the current political economy, although it has often be regarded by economists as only an ethical issue for those concerned about future generations. The central debate in economics has then concerned the rate at which future costs and benefits should be discounted. Indeed the full range of ethical aspects of climate change are rarely even discussed. Despite recent high profile and lengthy academic papers on the topic the ethical remains at best superficial within climate change economics. Recognising the necessary role of ethical judgment poses a problem for economists who conduct exercises in cost-benefit analysis and deductive climate modelling under the presumption of an objectivity that excludes values. Priority is frequently given to orthodox economic methodology, but that this entails a consequentialist utilitarian philosophy is forgotten while the terms of the debate and understanding is simultaneously restricted. We set out to raise the relevance of a broader range of ethical issues including: intergenerational ethics as the basis for the discount rate, interregional distribution of harm, equity and justice issues concerning the allocation of carbon budgets, incommensurability in the context of compensation, and the relationship of climate ethics to economic growth. We argue that the pervasiveness of strong uncertainty in climate science, incommensurability of values and non-utilitarian ethics are inherent features of the climate policy debate. That mainstream economics is ill-equipped to address these issues relegates it to the category of misplaced concreteness and its policy prescriptions are then highly misleading misrepresentations of what constitutes ethical action.

Suggested Citation

  • Clive L. Spash & Clemens Gattringer, 2016. "The Economics and Ethics of Human Induced Climate Change," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2016_02, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
  • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwsre:sre-disc-2016_02
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Baer, Paul & Spash, Clive L., 2008. "Cost-benefit Analysis of Climate Change: Stern Revisited," MPRA Paper 101829, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Spash, Clive L., 2016. "The Paris Agreement to Ignore Reality," SRE-Discussion Papers 2016/01, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    3. William R. Cline, 1992. "Economics of Global Warming, The," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 39, April.
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    7. Clive L. Spash, 2014. "Better Growth, Helping the Paris COP-out? Fallacies and Omissions of the New Climate Economy Report," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2014_04, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    8. d'Arge, Ralph C & Schulze, William D & Brookshire, David S, 1982. "Carbon Dioxide and Intergenerational Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(2), pages 251-256, May.
    9. Nordhaus, William D, 1977. "Economic Growth and Climate: The Carbon Dioxide Problem," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(1), pages 341-346, February.
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    11. Ulrich Brand & Markus Wissen, 2013. "Crisis and continuity of capitalist society-nature relationships: The imperial mode of living and the limits to environmental governance," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 687-711, August.
    12. Michael R. Raupach & Steven J. Davis & Glen P. Peters & Robbie M. Andrew & Josep G. Canadell & Philippe Ciais & Pierre Friedlingstein & Frank Jotzo & Detlef P. van Vuuren & Corinne Le Quéré, 2014. "Sharing a quota on cumulative carbon emissions," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(10), pages 873-879, October.
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    14. Ha-Joon Chang, 2002. "Breaking the mould: an institutionalist political economy alternative to the neo-liberal theory of the market and the state," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 26(5), pages 539-559, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Valentin Cojanu, 2022. "The value of sacrifice in (post-)growth scenarios," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 4322-4339, December.
    2. Valentin Cojanu, 2021. "The value of sacrifice in (post-)growth scenarios," Post-Print hal-03384636, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate change; economics; ethics; carbon budgets; discounting; compensation; harm; intergenerational equity; intragenerational distribution; justice; consequentialism; utilitarianism; incommensurabil;
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