Climate and environmental ethics

Climate change poses major challenges for practical philosophy. Questions here relate to different levels of justice, responsibility for risks, legitimacy of expectations, or evaluation of new technologies. The most pressing question of intergenerational climate justice concerns the relationship of the present generation to future generations. Do we owe it to future generations to take additional action against climate change and its harmful consequences? And if so, to what extent and in what ways? How can climate policy measures be assessed from a normative perspective? What needs need to be considered and how can positive and negative consequences for different generations and groups be compared and weighed? What might an equitable distribution of the remaining carbon budget look like? How can disagreements about what obligations individual agents are under in the current less than ideal circumstances be resolved to help bring about collective solutions? How should the use of new technologies (geoengineering/climate engineering) be assessed? These and other questions are addressed in projects at the Institute of Philosophy in interdisciplinary collaboration at the University of Graz as well as at the international level.

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