Climate risks, climate economics, and the foundations of rights-based risk ethics

Bibliographic Data

ID12719790
AuthorsKlaus Steigleder (0000-0002-0699-4785, Ruhr University Bochum, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume15
Issue2
Pages251-271
Publication date2016-04-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Human Rights (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1475-4835 • E-ISSN: 1475-4843
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14754835.2015.1083849
OpenAlexW2346125063
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited20

In this article, I argue that climate ethics must basically be risk ethics. But risk ethics is still an underdeveloped field of normative ethics. For example, rights-based ethical theories, the attractive features of which are outlined in this article, tend to prohibit all risk impositions. Such inability of rights-based theories to deal convincingly with risks could be a reason why the standard approach of climate economics, which as I try to show is based on questionable normative presuppositions, is still as influential as it is. I propose a solution to the problems rights-based moral theories have with risks and outline the basic criteria of permissible and impermissible risk impositions. Finally, I indicate that this will enable us to tackle climate risks in a promising way. The main aim of the article, however, is not to contribute to concrete questions of climate ethics but to the improvement of its normative foundations

Applied ethics · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Information ethics · Law and economics · Meta-ethics · Normative · Normative ethics · Political science · Positive economics · Presupposition · Sociology · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Climate Change Policy and Economics · Law · Philosophy · Risk Perception and Management

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