GS4 (Ethics in governance)
Do ethical considerations come into play in climate change negotiations? What strategies would you use to converge the ethical positions of different nations.
Best answer
Srishty Srivastava wrote the best answer for this question and got a score of 5/10 (if the best answer is an image, it cannot be uploaded here, hence scroll down to see those). The answer is being reproduced below for everyone’s convenience. Of course these answers can always be improved. (Best answer of a particular only involves those given on that day, later answers may not have been checked)
Ethical considerations become very important in climate change due to the inherent trade off between growth and sustainable development. Compromising on growth and deviating from “Business As Usual” scenario requires tremendous political will. In times of realism, only ethical considerations can fuel political will to work in that direction. Climate justice includes:
1. Historical Responsibility – the developed nations (global North) need to be accountable for its past actions.
2. Climate change agreement must not be used as an excuse to maintain their hegemony and prevent the developing countries from growing.
3. Sustainability which is both inter-generational (Stewardship) as well as intra-generational (Equity).
4. Consideration for the low lying countries and island countries who will be worst affected in case of global warming.
5. Decentralisation of power and participation of communities
Convergence of Ethical positions is difficult as we don’t have world government. So, the consciousness of working for its own people usually triumphs over working for the world at large. However, steps like –
1. Better North-South cooperation by dialogue, diplomatic pressuring in international forums
2. Concrete and robust technology transfer mechanism as in Kyoto protocol
3. Legally binding mechanism and dispute resolution process
4. Awareness and sense of urgency in the citizens
will ensure a more pro-active and climate friendly stance from nations which will go a long way in guarding the tenets of climate justice.
