Climate Justice

Most of my papers and two books on climate justice have been interested in arguing for the importance of global poverty to the understanding of the problem. I have defended an Anti-Poverty Principle, which holds that the identification of dangerous climate change involves a normative judgment about what we have reason to avoid, and that includes the prolongation or creation of involuntary poverty. I have also defended a Right to Promote Sustainable Development, which I interpret as a liberty right of states to pursue poverty eradicating human development within the context of international cooperation to mitigate climate change. And I have defended a Pro Poor Formula, which holds that climate change adaptation policies should prioritize projects on the basis of three factors, effectiveness, the number of poor people protected, and the depth of their poverty. In Mobilizing Hope I argue that both youth lead climate activism and developments in the renewable energy market are reasons to hope that the power of the fossil industry can be broken and that planetary warming can be limited within internationally accepted limits.

Books

The global climate crisis and other pressures on planetary ecology cause profound anxieties for humanity. Climate change threatens to trap hundreds of millions of people in dire poverty-widening the gap in an already deeply divided economy. However, a new generation of activists is offering inspiration, raising hopes in a seemingly hopeless situation.

In Mobilizing Hope: Climate Change and Global Poverty, Darrel Moellendorf discusses climate change, global poverty, justice, and the importance of political responses, both internationally and domestically, that offer hope. While there are reasons to worry that the era of pervasive human planetary impact, the Anthropocene, could produce terrible global injustices and massive environmental destruction, that need not be so. Moellendorf contends that the work of bringing about a world united in creating sustainable solutions to environmental crises, that values the Earth's natural wonders, and actualizes a vision of economic justice, is the work of mobilizing hope.
This book examines the threat that climate change poses to projects of poverty eradication, sustainable development, and biodiversity preservation. It discusses the values that support these projects and evaluates the normative bases of climate change policy. It regards climate change policy as a public problem that normative philosophy can shed light on and assumes that the development of policy should be based on values regarding what is important to respect, preserve, and protect.


What sort of policy do we owe the poor of the world who are particularly vulnerable to climate change? Why should our generation take on the burden of mitigating climate change caused, in no small part, by emissions from people now dead? What value is lost when species go extinct, because of climate change? This book presents a broad and inclusive discussion of climate change policy, relevant to those with interests in public policy, development studies, environmental studies, political theory, and moral and political philosophy.

Further Articles and Chapters

Climate Change, Policy, and Justice" in Birgit Blättel-Mink ed., Nachhaltige Entwicklung in einer Gesellschaftes Umbruchs Springer Verlag, October 2021.

Assessing Climate Policies: Catastrophe Avoidance and the Right to Sustainable Development" Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. Co-author Daniel Callies, Volume 20 Issue 2, May 2021, 33-45.

Ethical Choices behind Quantifications of Fair Contributions under the Paris Agreement," Nature Climate Change 11, 2021, 300-305. Co-authors Siva Kartha, Tom Athansiou, Simon Caney, Elizabeth Cripps, Kate Dooley, Vroz K. Dubash, Teng Fei, Paul G. Harris, Christian Holz, Bård Lahn, Benito Müller, J. Timmons Roberts, Ambuj Sagar, Henry Shue, Peter Singer, and Harald Winkler.

Three Interpretations of the Anthropocene: Hope and Anxiety at the End of Nature" Ethics, Politics, and Society, 3, 2020. .

Responsibility for Increasing Mitigation Ambition in Light of the Right to Sustainable Development" Fudan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 13, 2020, 181-192.

“Distributive Justice and Climate Change Economics, " Zeitschrift für Umweltpolitik und Umweltforschung, 2020. Heft 1. Co-author Axel Schaffer and Sebastian Brun.

The Cry of the Earth and The Cry of the Poor," in Robert McKim ed. Laudatory Si and The Environment: Pope Francis' Green Encyclical (London: Routledge, 2019).

“Development and Climate Ethics" in Anabelle Lever and Andrei Paoma, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Ethics and Public Policy (London: Routledge, 2018).

“Justice in Mitigation After Paris," in Colleen Murphy, Pablo Gandoni, and Robert McKim, eds. Climate Change and Its Impacts: Risks and Inequalities (New York: Springer, 2018).

“Cascading Biases against Poorer Countries," letter, Nature Climate Change 8, 2018, 348-349. Co-authors Siva Kartha, Tom Athansiou, Simon Caney, Elizabeth Cripps, Kate Dooley, Vroz K. Dubash, Teng Fei, Paul G. Harris, Christian Holz, Bård Lahn, Benito Müller, J. Timmons Roberts, Ambuj Sagar, Henry Shue, Peter Singer, and Harald Winkler.

“Justice and Climate Change" in Jonathan Wolff, ed. Readings in Moral Philosophy (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2017).

“Progress, Destruction, and the Anthropocene", Social Philosophy and Policy, 34:2, 2017, 66-88.

“An Intergenerationally Fair Path to 2ºC", Climatic Change, 143:3, 2017, 213-226. Co-Author Axel Schaffer.

“Equalizing the Intergenerational Burdens of Climate Change — An Alternative to Discounted Utilitarianism" Midwest Studies in Philosophy XL, 2016, 43-62. Co-Author Axel Schaffer.

Taking UNFCCC Norms Seriously" in Dominic Roser and Jennifer Heyward eds. Climate Change and Non-Ideal Theory, Oxford University Press, 2016, 104-124.

Can Dangerous Climate Change Be Avoided," Global Justice Theory Practice Rhetoric 8 2016.

Climate Change Justice," Philosophy Compass, online, March 2015, 173-186.

“Beyond Discounted Utilitarianism — Just Distribution of Climate Costs," Karlsruher Beitäge zur Wirtschaftspolitischen Forschung34, 2014, 185-203. Co-author Axel Schaffer.

“Responsibility and the Right to Sustainable Development in Climate Change Treaty Deliberations" in Marcello Di Paola and Gianfranco Pellegrino eds. Canned Heat: The Ethics and Politics of Climate Change, Routledge, forthcoming 2014.

“Climate Change and Global Justice," WIREs Climate Change, on line, Feb. 1, 2012.

A Normative Account of Dangerous Climate Change," Climatic Change, 108:1, 2011, 57-72.

“A Right to Sustainable Development," The Monist, 94:3, July 2011, 433-452.

Common Atmospheric Ownership and Equal Emissions Entitlements," in Denis Arnold ed. The Ethics of Global Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, 2011, 104-123.

“Treaty Norms and Climate Change Mitigation," Ethics and International Affairs, 23:3, Fall 2009, 247-265. Also available on line at http://www.cceia.org/resources/journal/23_3/features/001

“Justice and the Intergenerational Assignment of the Costs of Climate Change," Journal of Social Philosophy, 40:2, 2009, 204-224. 

“Equal Natural Rights to Property and Climate Change," for the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, 2007 (nicht peer-reviewed).

News

Jan 10
08:00 AM

"Ukraine has no Jus ex Bello obligation to enter into concessionary negotiations" - Moellendorf in the FAZ

Original version and English translation of Moellendorf's recent article in Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung: “Ukraine has no Jus ex Bello obligation to enter into concessionary negotiations"

Jan 8
08:00 AM

Workshop: Conservation and Global Justice

Workshop with Chris Armstrong on his new book manuscript "Conservation and Global Justice: Responding fairly to the Biodiversity Crisis". More information here.

Dec 7
09:00 AM

CfA: Two Postdoctoral Fellowship in the program Global Health Justice

The Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programm
is seeking to appoint up to two post-doctoral fellows for the academic year 2023/2024. More information here.
Apr 21
12:00 AM

Moellendorf mentioned in recent UN-report

Professor Moellendorf's 2020 paper “Responsibility for Increasing Mitigation Ambition" was mentioned and cited in the recent UN-report on climate change mitigation. See chapter 4, page 99.

Dec 12
12:00 AM

Moellendorf in the Daily Maverick

Darrel Moellendorf's reflections on eco-sabotage in the Daily Maverick can be found here.

Dec 8
12:00 AM

Moellendorf guest on "Hessen schafft Wissen" podcast

Darrel Moellendorf was interviewed for the podcast "Hessen schafft Wissen". You can listen to the interview under the heading "Mobilizing Hope in the Face of Climate Change" here.

Jul 1
12:00 AM

Panel discussion on the topic "Der urbane Planet"

Darrel Moellendorf participated in a discussion on the topic "Der urbane Planet - soziale, ökonomische und ökologische Herausforderungen für das globale Zusammenleben der Gegenwart" as part of the tinyMONDAY on the 5th of July. You can find further information here.  

Dec 11
12:00 AM

Conference on the topic "Normative Economic Policy"

Moellendorf gave a talk at the conference "Normative Economic Policy". You can find further information here