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Treaty Norms and Climate Change Mitigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Darrel Moellendorf
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Abstract

Treaty Norms and Climate Change Mitigation

Darrel Moellendorf

Currently the international community is discussing the regulatory framework to replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2012. The unveiling of the new framework is scheduled to occur at the December 2009 COP in Copenhagen. The stakes are high, since any treaty will affect the development prospects of per capita poor countries and will determine the climate change–related costs borne by poor people for centuries to come. Failure to arrive at an agreement would have grave effects on the development prospects of poor countries, many of which will experience the most severe effects of climate change. The original UNFCCC treaty recognizes these kinds of concerns and requires that further treaty negotiation pay them heed. Any agreement will be required to conform to UNFCCC norms related to sustainable development and the equitable distribution of responsibilities. In this paper I argue that UNFCCC norms tightly constrain the range of acceptable agreements for the distribution of burdens to mitigate climate change. I conclude that any legitimate treaty must put much heavier mitigation burdens on industrialized developed countries. Of the various proposals that have received international attention, two in particular stand out as possibly satisfying UNFCCC norms regarding the distribution of responsibilities.

Keywords

Climate changeUNFCCC normsdangerous climate changeright to developmentdifferentiated responsibilitiesdifferentiated capacitiesglobal justiceintergenerational justice
Type
Features
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , Fall 2009 , pp. 247 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 2009

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References

Notes

1 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), “Report of the Conference of the Parties on its thirteenth session, held in Bali from 3 to 15 December 2007,” Addendum, Decision 1/CP/13; available at unfccc.int/meetings/cop_13/items/4049.php(accessed October 21, 2008).Google Scholar

2 Ibid., p.3.Google Scholar

3 “Parts per million” in this context is the ratio of the number of greenhouse gas molecules to the total number of molecules of air.Google Scholar

4 See Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “Summary for Policymakers,” inSolomon, S. et al. , eds., Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p.2; available at http:\\www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-spm.pdf(accessed October 15, 2008).Google Scholar

5 United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 43/53, 1988, “Protection of Global Climate for Present and Future Generations of Mankind”; available at http:\\www.un.org/Depts/dhl/res/resa43.htm(accessed October 15, 2008).Google Scholar

6 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 1992; available at unfccc.int/essential_background/convention/background/items/1349.php(accessed October 15, 2008).Google Scholar

7 Ibid.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., art. 2.Google Scholar

9 Compare Darrel Moellendorf, “A Normative Account of Dangerous Climate Change” (unpublished).Google Scholar

10 Stephen H. Schneider and Janica Lane discuss mitigation under 3.5 degrees Celsius as the goal in their “An Overview of ‘Dangerous’ Climate Change,” inJoachim Schellnhuber, Hans et al. , eds., Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 7–24.Google Scholar Yu. A. Izrael and S. M. Semenov advocate a goal of 2.5 degrees in their “Critical Levels of Greenhouse Gases, Stabilization Scenarios, and Implications for the Global Decisions,” in the same volume, pp. 73–79.

11 Throughout this paper, “degrees” is used in reference to degrees Celsius.Google Scholar

12 For the EU's view, see Commission of the European Communities, “Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Limiting Global Climate Change to 2 Degrees Celsius, The Way Ahead for 2020 and Beyond,” October 1, 2007; available at http:\\eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2007:0002:FIN:EN:PDF(accessed May 4, 2009). For the United Nations Development Programme's advocacy of this goal, see their Human Development Report 2007/2008; available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/(accessed December 15, 2008). See also the 2008 WIDER lecture, “The Climate Challenge,” by UNDP head Kemal Derviş;available at http:\\www.wider.unu.edu/home/news/en_GB/annual-lecture-online-print/(accessed October 16, 2008). The ITUC's endorsement of the 2 degree limit is found in its submission to the Working Group; available at http:\\www.unfccc.int/resource/docs/2008/smsn/ngo/052.pdf(accessed May 25, 2009). Christian Aid's position is discussed at http:\\www.christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/Countdown-to-Copenhagen-climate-change/Copenhagen-QandA.aspx(accessed February 2, 2009). Greenpeace endorses the 2 degree limit in its proposal to the Working Group; available at unfccc.int/resource/docs/2008/smsn/ngo/095.pdf(accessed May 25, 2009).Google Scholar

13 IPCC, “Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report: Summary for Policymakers,” pp. 20–21; available at http:\\www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf(accessed October 15, 2008).Google Scholar

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15 For the claim that emissions must be reduced to zero, seeEdmonds, Jae andSmith, Steven J., “The Technology of Two Degrees,” inSchellnhuber, et al. , eds., Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, p.388.Google Scholar

16 UNFCCC (see note 7).Google Scholar

17 Ibid.Google Scholar

18 The first norm seems to be applying to states what Tony Honoré refers to as outcome responsibility, “being responsible for the good and harm we bring about by what we do.” See hisResponsibility and Fault (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 1999), p.14.Google Scholar

19 “Title of the Post-2012 Agreement”; available at unfccc.int/files/kyoto_protocol/application/pdf/australia280509.pdf (accessed May 28, 2009).

20 Traxler, Martino, “Fair Chore Division for Climate Change,” Social Theory and Practice 28, (2002), pp. 101–34.Traxler's principle of burden equalization in eschewing equalizing percentages of CO2 reductions is distinct from John Stuart Mill's principle of equality of sacrifice in taxation, which holds that people should be taxed at equal rates. SeeStuart Mill, John, Principles of Political EconomyCrossRefGoogle Scholar, Pt. II, Bk. V, chap. II: “Setting out, then, from the maxim that equal sacrifices ought to be demanded from all, we have next to inquire whether this is in fact done, by making each contribute the same percentage on his pecuniary means.” Mill contends that generally it is so done. I am indebted to an anonymous referee for alerting me to Mill's discussion. The Mill text is available in The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume III (1848); available at oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt &staticfile=show.php%3Fperson=21 &Itemid=28 (accessed April 25, 2009).

21 Traxler, “Fair Chore,” p.129.Google Scholar

22 Ibid., p.133.Google Scholar

23 The Human Development Index was developed by the United Nations Development Programme under the guidance of Sen's capabilities framework. It assesses average human well-being within states by combining measures of income, health, and education. The UNDP's Measuring Human Development: A Primer is available at hdr.undp.org/en/reports/publications/title,4182,en.html(accessed October 21, 2008).Google Scholar

24 The 2007–2008 Human Development Index rankings are available at hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/(accessed October 21, 2008).Google Scholar

25 This is a basic moral point made admirably clear byShue, Henryin“Subsistence Emissions and Luxury Emissions,” Law and Policy 15, (1993), pp. 39–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 United States Energy Information Administration (USEIA) data; available at http:\\www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/world.html(accessed December 9, 2008).Google Scholar

27 UNDP, Human Development Report 2007/2008, p.45.Google Scholar

28 Ibid.Google Scholar

29 Chair, Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action Under the Convention, “Negotiating Text,” p.9; available at unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/awglca6/eng/08.pdf(accessed May 25, 2009).Google Scholar

30 Annex-1 countries are the countries indentified by the Kyoto Protocol as having a responsibility to reduce emissions. These are only countries of the developed world.Google Scholar

31 UNDP, Human Development Report 2007/2008, pp. 229–32.Google Scholar

32 See the Centre for Science and the Environment at http:\\www.cseindia.org and the Global Commons Institute at http:\\www.gci.org.uk. The view is defended in Agarwal, Anil andNarain, Sunita, Global Warming in an Unequal World: A Case of Environmental Colonialism (New Delhi: Centre for Science and the Environment, 1991),Google Scholar and in Athanasiou, Tom andBaer, Paul, Dead Heat: Global Justice and Global Warming (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2002).Google Scholar The principle has received some, but not a great deal of, philosophical attention. See, e.g., Jamieson, Dale, “Climate Change and Global Environmental Justice,” inMiller, Clark A. andEdwards, Paul N., eds., Changing the Atmosphere: Expert Knowledge and Environmental Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 287–307Google Scholar; and Singer, Peter, One World: The Ethics of Globalization (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002), pp. 14–50.Google Scholar

33 Chair, Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action Under the Convention, “Negotiating Text” (see note 30).Google Scholar

34 Singer, , One World, p.36.Google Scholar

35 U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base”; available at http:\\www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpop.html(accessed October 20, 2008).Google Scholar

36 USEIA data.Google Scholar

37 Ibid.Google Scholar

38 Ibid.Google Scholar

39 Hansen, James et al. , “Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?” p.13; available at http:\\www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/TargetCO2_20080407.pdf(accessed January 30, 2009).Google Scholar

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41 See Baer, Paul et al. , The Greenhouse Development Rights Framework: The Right to Development in a Climate Constrained World, 2nd ed. (Berlin: Heinrich Böll Foundation, Christian Aid, EcoEquity, and the Stockholm Environment Institute, 2008);available at http:\\www.ecoequity.org/docs/TheGDRsFramework.pdf(accessed December 9, 2008.) This is a particularly important proposal in virtue of its explicit attempt to satisfy the three UNFCCC norms that I have been employing.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., p.55.Google Scholar

43 IPCC, “Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report: Summary for Policymakers,” pp. 20–21.Google Scholar

44 This is well documented in the UNDP's Human Development Report 2007/2008. See note 14 and in the IPCC's “Fourth Assessment Report.” See “IPCC, 2007: Summary for Policymakers,” inParry, M. L. et al. , eds., Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)Google Scholar; available at http:\\www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg2/ar4-wg2-spm.pdf (accessed May 27, 2009). But for another report, see the World Health Organization's submission to the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action; available at unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/smsn/igo/047.pdf (accessed May 27, 2009).

45 See, e.g., Athanasiou and Baer, Dead Heat.Google Scholar

46 Stephen M. Gardiner has perspicaciously analyzed this intergenerational collective action problem in a set of papers. See his “The Real Tragedy of the Commons,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 30 no. 4 (2001), pp. 387–416; and “The Global Warming Tragedy and the Dangerous Illusion of the Kyoto Protocol,” Ethics & International Affairs 18 no. 1 (2004), pp. 23–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar