E-Book Overview
Climate change and justice are so closely associated that many people take it for granted that a global climate treaty should--indeed, must--directly address both issues together. But, in fact, this would be a serious mistake, one that, by dooming effective international limits on greenhouse gases, would actually make the world's poor and developing nations far worse off. This is the provocative and original argument of Climate Change Justice. Eric Posner and David Weisbach strongly favor both a climate change agreement and efforts to improve economic justice. But they make a powerful case that the best--and possibly only--way to get an effective climate treaty is to exclude measures designed to redistribute wealth or address historical wrongs against underdeveloped countries. In clear language, Climate Change Justice proposes four basic principles for designing the only kind of climate treaty that will work--a forward-looking agreement that requires every country to make greenhouse--gas reductions but still makes every country better off in its own view. This kind of treaty has the best chance of actually controlling climate change and improving the welfare of people around the world.
E-Book Content
Climate Change Justice
This page intentionally left blank
Climate Change Justice Eric A. Posner David Weisbach
Pr ince ton University Press Pr ince ton and Oxford
Copyright © 2010 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Posner, Eric A. Climate change justice / Eric A. Posner and David Weisbach. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-13775-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Climate change— Political aspects. 2. Climate change—Government policy. 3. Climate change—Law and legislation. I. Weisbach, David, 1963– II. Title. QC903.P78 2010 363.738'74526—dc22 2009045413 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Adobe Garamond Pro with Helvetica Neue display Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ press.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments
vii
Introduction
1
Chapter 1: Ethically Relevant Facts and Predictions Chapter 2: Policy Instruments Chapter 3: S ymbols, Not Substance Chapter 4: C limate Change and Distributive Justice: Climate Change Blinders
10 41 59 73
Chapter 5: P unishing the Wrongdoers: A Climate Guilt Clause?
99
Chapter 6: E quality and the Case against Per Capita Permits
119
Chapter 7: F uture Generations: The Debate over Discounting
144
Chapter 8: G lobal Welfare, Global Justice, and Climate Change
169
A Recapitulation Afterword: The Copenhagen Accord
189 193
Notes Index
199 219
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgments
In preparing this book, we extensively revised some articles that initially appeared in the following places. Eric A. Posner and Cass R. Sunstein, Climate Change Justice, 96 Georgetown Law Journal 1565 (2008); Eric A. Posner and Cass R. Sunstein, Should Greenhouse Gas Permits Be Allocated on a Per Capita Basis? 97 California Law Review 51 (2009); and Cass Sunstein and David Weisbach, Climate Change and Discounting the Future: A Guide for the Perplexed, 27 Yale Law and Policy Review (2010). We thank these journals for permission to republish our articles. Many people, too numerous to name, have helped us develop the ideas that we advance in this book. Most of t