THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF DEVELOPED COUNTRIES IN ADAPTATION TO AND MITIGATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE: AN ETHICAL MANDATE
Abstract
This article asserts three propositions. First, climate change and/or global warming has (and will continue to have) qualitative differences in its nature and impact on rich and poor countries, thus demonstrating the imperative of adaptation to and mitigation of its effects. Second, the current international environmental regime is insufficient for sensible global distributive justice. What is more, in the absence of an adequate regime the world continues to ignore fundamental ethical issues and the immediate needs of climate-vulnerable countries. Third, the effective preservation of the environment necessitates that developed countries bear the (ethical) responsibility for meeting the costs associated with climate change, and urgently and unremittingly discharge their obligation to assist developing and/or least developed countries in adapting to and mitigating the impact of global warming.
About the Author
M. D. Fite
Ambo University
Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Megersa Dugasa Fite - Lecturer of Law, School of Law
45, Ambo University, Ambo, Ethiopia
References
1. Adelman s. Between the Scylla of Sovereignty and the Charybdis of Human Rights: The Pitfalls of Development in Pursuit of Justice, 2(1) Human Rights and international Legal Discourse 17 (2008).
2. Adger W.N. et al. Adaptation Now in Adapting to Climate Change: Thresholds, Values, Governance 1 (W.N. Adger et al. (eds.), Cambridge: Cambridge university Press, 2009).
3. Baskin J. The Impossible Necessity of Climate Justice?, 10(2) Melbourne Journal of international law 424 (2009).
4. Burkett M. Climate Reparations, 10(2) Melbourne Journal of international law 509 (2009).
5. Caney s. Climate Change, Human Rights and Moral Thresholds in Human Rights and Climate Change 69 (s. Humphreys (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge university Press, 2010).
6. Carr C. & Rosembuj F. Flexible Mechanisms for Climate Change Compliance: Emission Offset Purchases Under the Clean Development Mechanism, 16 new York university Environmental law Journal 43 (2008).
7. Cazorla M. & Toman M. International Equity and Climate Change Policy, Climate issue Brief No. 27, Resources for the Future (December 2000) (Jun. 12, 2018), available at http://www.rff.org/files/sharepoint/Workimages/Download/RFF-CCiB-27.pdf.
8. Downing A. & Cuerrier A. A Synthesis of the Impacts of Climate Change on the First Nations and Inuit of Canada, 10(1) Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 57 (2011).
9. Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application (L.P. Pojman (ed.), 4th ed., Toronto: Wadsworth Thomson, 2005).
10. Gardiner s.M. A Perfect Moral Storm: Climate Change, Intergenerational Ethics and the Problem of Moral Corruption, 15 Environmental Values 397 (2006).
11. Gardiner s.M. The Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
12. Gosseries A. Historical Emissions and Free-Riding, 11(1) Ethical Perspectives 36 (2004).
13. Greene C. et al. A Very Inconvenient Truth, 23(1) Oceanography 214 (2010).
14. Hansen J. et al. Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?, 2 Open Atmosphere Science Journal 217 (2008).
15. Harris PG. World Ethics and Climate Change: From International to Global Justice Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010).
16. Haughey a. The World Bank Clean Technology Fund: Friend or Foe to the UNFCCC?, 9(2) Sustainable Development Law & Policy 57 (2009).
17. Kuwali D. From the West to the Rest: Climate Change as a Challenge to Human Security in Africa, 17(3) African security Review 18 (2008).
18. Moellendorf D. Justice and the Assignment of the Intergenerational Costs of Climate Change, 40(2) Journal of Social Philosophy 204 (2009).
19. Moss J. Climate Justice in Climate Change and Social Justice 51 (J. Moss (ed.), Carlton, vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2009).
20. O'Hara D.P & Abelsohn A. Ethical Response to Climate Change, 16(1) Ethics and the Environment 25 (2011).
21. Shue H. Global Environment and International Inequality, 75(3) International Affairs 531 (1999).
22. Stern N. The Economics of Climate Change, 98(2) American Economic Review 1 (2008).
23. Streck C. & Lin J. Making Markets Work: A Review of CDM Performance and the Need for Reform, 19(2) European Journal of International Law 409 (2008).
24. Sunstein C.R. Irreversible and Catastrophic: Global Warming, Terrorism, and Other Problems Eleventh Annual Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law, 23(1) Pace Environmental Law Review 3 (2005).
For citation:
Fite M.D. THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF DEVELOPED COUNTRIES IN ADAPTATION TO AND MITIGATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE: AN ETHICAL MANDATE. BRICS Law Journal. 2018;5(2):100-111. https://doi.org/10.21684/2412-2343-2018-5-2-100-111
Views: 496
Email this article 