Philosophical Foundations of Climate Change Policy

There is widespread agreement that we are obliged to do something about climate change, but considerable disagreement when it comes to explaining why we must do something. What remains most controversial, in other words, is not climate change policy, but rather the philosophical foundations of climate change policy. This book criticizes the most popular proposals that have been made to supply these foundations. It argues, instead, that our current actions, which involve the relatively unrestricted emissions of greenhouse cases, is a case of simple unfairness. It is an arrangement under which are taking out more than we are putting into the system of cooperation that extends out in time to include future generations.