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Equality, justice and feasibility: an ethical analysis of the WBGU’s budget approach

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  • Fabian Schuppert
  • Christian Seidel

Abstract

According to the Budget Approach proposed by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), allocating CO 2 emission rights to countries on an equal per-capita basis would provide an ethically justified response to global climate change. In this paper, we will highlight four normative issues which beset the WBGU’s Budget Approach: (1) the approach’s core principle of distributive justice, the principle of equality, and its associated policy of emissions egalitarianism are much more complex than it initially appears; (2) the “official” rationale for determining the size of the budget should be modified in order to avoid implausible normative assumptions about the imposition of permissible intergenerational risks; (3) the approach heavily relies on trade-offs between justice and feasibility which should be stated more explicitly; and (4) part of the approach’s ethical appeal depends on policy instruments which are “detachable” from the approach’s core principle of distributive justice. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Fabian Schuppert & Christian Seidel, 2015. "Equality, justice and feasibility: an ethical analysis of the WBGU’s budget approach," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 397-406, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:133:y:2015:i:3:p:397-406
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-015-1409-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Narasimha D. Rao & Paul Baer, 2012. "“Decent Living” Emissions: A Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-26, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fabian Schuppert & Christian Seidel, 2017. "Feasibility, normative heuristics and the proper place of historical responsibility—a reply to Ohndorf et al," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 101-107, January.
    2. Mehdi Jabbari & Majid Shafiepour Motlagh & Khosro Ashrafi & Ghahreman Abdoli, 2020. "Global carbon budget allocation based on Rawlsian Justice by means of the Sustainable Development Goals Index," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 5465-5481, August.
    3. Dominic Roser & Christian Huggel & Markus Ohndorf & Ivo Wallimann-Helmer, 2015. "Advancing the interdisciplinary dialogue on climate justice," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 349-359, December.
    4. Markus Ohndorf & Julia Blasch & Renate Schubert, 2015. "Emission budget approaches for burden sharing: some thoughts from an environmental economics point of view," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 385-395, December.

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