Justice in Climate Policy
Distributing Climate Costs Fairly
Author(s)
de Vries, Annick
Werner, Gijsbert
Wijlhuizen, Elsenoor
Toom, Victor
Bovens, Mark
Hulscher, Suzanne
Language
EnglishAbstract
This open access book is looking into ways to achieve just climate policy within a country. The authors of this monograph share a unique, timely and original vision: continuous support for climate policy is more likely to emerge when citizens find that the distribution of the bill for climate costs is fair. But what is a fair distribution of climate costs? This is an important question because financial costs of mitigation (reducing greenhouse gases), adaptation (adapting to climate change) and damage (compensating or compensating after weather extremes) increase significantly in the coming decades. Drawing on philosophy and ethics, the authors propose ten principles for achieving just distributions of domestic climate costs. Examples of such principles are individual responsibility, the polluter pays, greatest utility and capacity to pay. Yet what a fair distribution is, depends on, for example, political preferences and the policy issue at hand. Empirical research on designing climate policies, however, shows that distributive principles are not part of the political, policy, and public discussions. The authors therefore argue that explicit attention to principles of just distribution at the start of a policy process contributes to support for climate policy. This book provides tools to professionals and students to achieve justice in climate policy.
Keywords
Climate justice; Distributive justice; Climate policy; Mitigation, adaptation and damage; Procedural justiceDOI
10.1007/978-3-031-59427-4ISBN
9783031594274, 9783031594267, 9783031594274Publisher
Springer NaturePublisher website
https://www.springernature.com/gp/products/booksPublication date and place
Cham, 2024Imprint
Springer Nature SwitzerlandSeries
Research for Policy,Classification
Ethics and moral philosophy
Ecological science, the Biosphere
Climate change
Social and ethical issues
Meteorology and climatology