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8 - Prioritarianism and Climate Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2022

By
Maddalena Ferranna  and
Marc Fleurbaey
Edited by
Matthew D. Adler  and
Ole F. Norheim
Matthew D. Adler
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
Ole F. Norheim
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Bergen, Norway
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Summary

This chapter compares utilitarianism and prioritarianism as alternative social welfare frameworks for evaluating climate policies. We review the main debates in the climate policy literature concerning the parameters of the utilitarian social welfare function, and discuss the analytical requirements and climate policy implications of prioritarianism both in deterministic and stochastic settings. We show that, given the specific characteristics of the climate issue and the assumptions routinely made in the climate literature, prioritarianism tends to support more lenient climate policies than undiscounted utilitarianism. This is based on the assumption of economic and social progress that makes the current generation worse-off than future generations. The presence of catastrophic climate outcomes that endanger the living conditions of future generations (or of the poorest individuals living in the future) relaxes this result.

Keywords

climate changeprioritarianismSocial Cost of Carbonutilitarianisminequalityclimate policydamage risk
Type
Chapter
Information
Prioritarianism in Practice , pp. 360 - 407
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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