Ethics and Climate Change (Essay Sample)

Ethics and Climate Change Student Name Institution Course Number. Course Name Name of Instructor 28th May 2024 Ethics and Climate Change The Paris Agreement has created new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for countries in order to hit certain set targets to manage Climate change. Climate change has been an international issue of concern for many years. Several countries now agree on the importance of dedicating budgets and committing to socio-economic changes to both manage emissions and increase afforestation in order to hit the set targets (European Commission, 2023). The countries have agreed through multinational agencies to dedicate part of their budgets as self-responsibility to a moral cause of managing global climate change. Ethical Framework In 2017, 195 states joined to create a declaration of globally agreed ethical principles that will guide decisions and policy-making to manage climate change. According to UNESCO (2019), the first ethical principle was the prevention of harm. According to UNESCO (2019), “anticipate, avoid or minimize harm, wherever it might emerge, from climate change, as well as from climate mitigation and adaptation policies and actions.” In consistency with nonmaleficence ethics, do no harm is an ethical principle that requires actions to avoid causing harm to others. Climate change is a global issue of concern because of the harmful projected consequences. Global warming is projected to continue at an accelerated rate unless carbon emissions are reduced and vegetation cover is increased. The second principle was "scientific knowledge and integrity in decision-making" (UNESCO, 2019). The use of scientific knowledge to make critical decisions is an ethical requirement of the modern world. Evidence-based decisions are trustworthy and dependable. Other ethical principles include solidarity and sustainability. Solidarity is based on the fact that climate change is global, and the actions of a single country may not be impactful. Climate change may require actions by the global community in solidarity to reduce emissions that may have an impact on global warming. The countries also agreed on the need for sustainability as an ethical need. According to Broome (2019), climate change will lead to catastrophes and hostile climates whose effects cannot be reversed by economic development expected without climate change measures. Historical Decision Making According to the European Commission (2023), Europe has achieved a constant reduction of 3% in emissions. Since 1990, the EU has worked to reduce carbon emissions, reaching a total of 32.5% in 2022. Information and data analyzed that influenced the start of climate change goals include data on floods, hurricanes, heatwaves, drought, dust storms, air quality and wildfires. These data show a changing trend: the melting of glaciers, rising sea levels, hostile tropical climate, and warm earth causing more precipitation. These changes would destroy natural habitats, increase health issues like cancer and set unplanned hostile natural disasters like hurricanes and droughts. The ethical principles on which climatic change actions were based sought to reduce possible future hostile climate. According to Sheather et al. (2023), climate change action is based on the ethics of intergenerational justice. Carbon emissions remain in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, contributing to climate change that will happen several years later. The emissions created in this generation, according to science, may have adverse effects for several generations to come. This generation, therefore, has a responsibility to protect the coming generations from the effects by reversing the effects and stopping their progression. The second ethical principle that is critical to climate change is collective action. Multinational organizations were formed in the wake of the realization that climate change could not be managed by single nations or regional actions. Impact on Decision-Making Several organizations have been formed as a result of the ethical framework for the management of climate change. Organizations like the IPCC aim to create continuous goals for participating countries to manage emissions. Multinational organizations have also created budgets and advanced science and technology to create innovative ways of reducing emissio...