Distributive Justice in International Climate Policy: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

This thesis explores the principles of distributive justice in the context of climate change. I first evaluate the Ability to Pay Principle, the Polluter Pays Principle, and the Beneficiary Pays Principle on their normative grounds. I conclude that the BPP can be defended against objections concerning the consideration of wealth in proportion to historical emissions and imposing costs on the wrong people, whereas the PPP and the APP can not. Therefore the BPP is a fairer principle. However, due to the past-benefits objection, I render the BPP nonetheless inappropriate to guide international climate policy. Instead, I propose an altered version of the BPP (Alternative Beneficiary Pays Principle), which is able to take both historical, present, and future emissions into consideration, filling the gap the other principles leave open. Finally, whereas the current literature stops after dealing with the normative grounds of the principles, I further evaluate the feasibility of the ABPP...Show moreThis thesis explores the principles of distributive justice in the context of climate change. I first evaluate the Ability to Pay Principle, the Polluter Pays Principle, and the Beneficiary Pays Principle on their normative grounds. I conclude that the BPP can be defended against objections concerning the consideration of wealth in proportion to historical emissions and imposing costs on the wrong people, whereas the PPP and the APP can not. Therefore the BPP is a fairer principle. However, due to the past-benefits objection, I render the BPP nonetheless inappropriate to guide international climate policy. Instead, I propose an altered version of the BPP (Alternative Beneficiary Pays Principle), which is able to take both historical, present, and future emissions into consideration, filling the gap the other principles leave open. Finally, whereas the current literature stops after dealing with the normative grounds of the principles, I further evaluate the feasibility of the ABPP in guiding international climate negotiations. I conclude that the long- and short-term feasibility of the ABPP is enhanced due to taking states as appropriate agents to assign the costs of climate change.Show less

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Distributive Justice in International Climate Policy: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice