Ethics and Climate seeks to increase and deepen public reflection on the ethical implications of human-induced climate change among policymakers, the public, non-government organizations, and journalists.

The site nas analyzed  ssues that have arisen in public discussions of climate change policy issues climate change for over 25 years. The site also regularly includes articles from other scholars in environmental ethics, science, and law on climate ethical issues facing climate policymakers. The importance of understanding the ethical issues raised by climate issues is critically important for all claims about the common good to have both factual premises and normative or ethical conclusions  

Climate change must be understood essentially as a civilization challenging ethical and moral problems.e some people and nations more than others are responsible for causing this problem, the consequences to those who will be most harmed from climate change are potentially catastrophic, and those most vulnerable to climate change often can’t protect themselves from harsh climate impacts.  Their best hope is often that those causing the problem will respond to their ethical duties to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to their fair share of safe global emissions.

The fact that climate change is an ethical problem has profound practical consequences for policy formation.  Yet the ethical implications of policy responses have usually been ignored in policy debates that have now spanned 30 years. Despite 20 years of international negotiations to come up with a global solution to climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, nearly all nations have failed to adopt domestic policy responses consistent with their ethical and moral obligations.

This site examines the ethical dimensions of climate science, economics, politics, policy responses, trading, atmospheric greenhouse gas stabilization goals, as well as the obligations of nations, governments, businesses, organizations, and individuals to respond to climate change. The site also follows the positions taken by national governments in international climate change negotiations and subjects their negotiating positions to an ethical critique. The site also examines arguments made by proponents and opponents of domestic climate change policies through an ethical lens.

Help with finding entries on this site including an INDEX can be found under the “start here” tab on the home page

The site believes that turning up the volume on the ethical dimensions of climate change is key to moving the world to a just solution to climate change and avoiding the catastrophic harms to the world that are likely, particularly climate change triggers know?/

Comments on the site should be made to Donald A. Brown, Scholar in Residence, Sustainability Ethics and Law, Widener University Commonwealth Law School by filling out the contact form..  The site continues to benefit significantly from responsible comments on articles both in support of and in opposition to opinions expressed.HEREIN.

Opinions expressed on Ethics and Climate are those of the author alone and should not be attributed to Widener University  Commonwealth School of Law.