Rutland Fellow Represents RIE and CU at Climate Change Conference in Cancun



Dr. Allen Thompson

Global climate change is one of the most fundamental problems facing humanity today and it raises a wide range of important ethical issues, from distributional justice, equity, and our obligations to future generations, to human rights and the tenor of our moral relationships with the rest of nature. 
Progress remains slow, at the level of international policy, but the consensus view in climate science assures us that the level of urgency is high.  By the estimate of many, the prospects for international progress on climate change improved at the Cancun meeting, where unanimity was reached on the so-called "Cancun Agreements."  Only time will tell what kind of success this is. The Rutland Institute for Ethics will continue to engage with, develop, and share new ideas about ethical issues relevant to climate change, not only with students at Clemson University but also with the Carolina Upstate, and at the national and international level.
 

The largest, organized, international response to issues surrounding anthropogenic global climate change operates under the banner of the United Nation's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  Since 1995, parties to the convention have met annually in meetings called "Conferences of the Parties" (or COP).  In December 2009, the COP-16 in Copenhagen, Denmark, drew a lot of media attention but, unfortunately, the delegates could not reach agreement on a legally binding, international agreement to curb global greenhouse gas emissions, which are the primary cause of climate change. Instead, at the last minute, they produced a contested and much weaker, voluntary agreement called the Copenhagen Accord.  The prospects for combating climate change through multilateral negotiations thus grew increasingly uncertain. 

In December 2010, Rutland Fellow, Allen Thompson, was invited to represent the Rutland Institute for Ethics and Clemson University at the COP-16 conference in Cancun, Mexico.  Dr. Thompson participated on three panels and made two presentations on ethical issues at play in the policy negotiations, specifically on the ethical dimensions raised by the idea of adaptation to climate change, on one hand and on the other hand, discussing the moral responsibility of state governments compared to that of non-state governments, non-governmental organizations, private corporations, and individual citizens.  These sessions were co-sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Rock Ethics Institute at Pennsylvania State University and the Program on Values in Society at the University of Washington.  The sessions were well attended, including by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's Chief of Staff for Climate Change Policy, Mohamed Raez Salemet.