Responsibility and international agreements

Question 1

Responsibility

Answer 1

A matter of responsibility -
Man’s responsibility for nature - John Passmore
Two definitions: soft responsibility and hard responsibility
Strong responsibility
The imperative of responsibility - protecting something or someone that is fragile and that is entrusted to us - we take charge of it - actively
This model and future generations - model of the parents - parental responsibility - to protect nature and future generations - in ethics - deolontological - duties towards nature and future gens - universal rule to protect them - Kantian perspective
Weak responsibility
Consequentialist doctrine
Responsible for consequences of actions - Utilitarian
Can be held accountable for consequences of actions - but not about protection - emphasis on what you can be held accountable for
Political sense of responsibility

Question 2

Ecologism vs environmentalism

Answer 2

Ecologist - Incorporate strong duties towards the future - more environmentalist (weaker sense) - as less consequences as possible on nature and future gen
Ecologism - changing the model of our societies - degrowth, sobriety, collapsologist
Environmentalism - think you can keep current sustem - can keep capitalism + rep democracy etc. - keep it but need to change it - can operate in this system

Question 3

Climate responsibility

Answer 3

The climate responsibility of governments - shows that there have been attempts to talk about responsibilit at the global level - COP27 - Egypt - find agreements to cut emissions - important responsibility behind it - common-but-differentiated - level of development/past emissions - this is a weak definition of responsibility - not trying to achieve a radical change in the way we consume etc. - what they are trying to do is a more environmentalist perwspective - accomadate current system - no obligation in Paris agreement - just common objective

Question 4

Paris agreement

Answer 4

Paris agreement -
nationally determined contributions - to what level will mitigate climate change - global objective - net zero by 2050 - can decide whether will cut emissions by X amount
Not current - accommodating different obligations of the countries
Because of very open and weak - many actors enter the climate sphere - they climatize their narratives (businesses etc.) - virtue signalling/green washing - a growing accountability due to the climitization of international politics
Common objective and no strings attached - who has the best narrative…amazon 10 years early?
Weakening of the weak responisbilyty at an international level -
Even at a national level - adopted a very weak approach -

Question 5

Polluter pays principle

Answer 5

PPP - OECD -
if you pollute - you should be charged for the area you polluted and the rehab of that area. Incorporated into many declarations - incl. Rio declaration in 1992 - basic idea - not only do you have to pay for the pollution but you must rehabilitate - as much as you can bring it back to what it was before. When companies spill oil - put there - pay to compensate those who were harmed - rehabilitate the places - rapidly compensation remained main driver - very quickly - what was an inhibiting principle - was very weak -
Move from who pollutes pays - NOW to you pay to pollute - you can pollute as long as you pay - weakening - with rise of compensatory logic - with lack of responsibility of rehab - don’t have a crime of ecocide. - can’t say have an obligation
Emphasis on rehab vs compensation?

Question 6

Market led responsibility

Answer 6

• Free market vs regulation
• The economics of welfare - Arthur cecil pigou - if pollute - can use taxation - if the company puts an unfair burden on a community - they should be taxed - aim of tax - encourage or constrain companies - handle pollution themselves - incentive for better practises - issue that when tried to put into place - been difficult
• The problem of social cost
• Rodin Coase - said that rather than have the state get involved - should let the market decide - what should be done in the context of pollution - when there is a pollution - the idea is to negotiate between the person who is a victim of pollution and who produces it - find some kind of monetary or economic arrangements - negotiations between the two parties - gave birth to carbon markets - environmental externalities - can exchange those rights in a cap and trade market - can exchange the rights - the coase model is the dominant!
• Eg of a very rigid idea - turned it into an accommodation of economic actors - need to continue to produce and progress -
• The tax on the other hand against the idea of growth.
  If you can’t make your goals - you can swap it ! Of interest - who have

Question 7

Climate Aid

Answer 7

Lack of regulation and lack of responsibility
The privitisation of climate finance - should give money - part of common but differentiated responsibilities - for many years - climate funding was public - was the states who gave the most money - sent to countries in global south - but for the past decade - there has been a strong privitisation of climate funding - states remain at the centre of the game - more and more use private funding to reach targets in the global south - Green climate fund - most loans - also will be investments in companies who will go to the global south - should be going straight to the countries! But instead private companies from the north are being sent to the south - not the idea of climate investment that we had!

Question 8

Green new deal

Answer 8

State regulation is vanishing - corporate responsibility is taking root - how to bring the state back - concept of green deal -
Naomi Klein - calls for green new deal - championed by states - in order to control industries
Towards the self-regulation of political and economic actors
Weak responsibility is winning
Corporate environmental responsibility - Kumar Chandan
Social responsibility and enviromnetal sustainability in business - Preeta M X
The private is presenting itself as a more responsible actor than the state or gov - uses what we call ecological indicators - ISO14001
Corporate standards - very vague. Also a voluntary basis.

Question 9

Ecological whistleblowers

Answer 9

Ecological whistleblowers -
Challenge of protection of whistelblowers - some kind of protection for whistleblwoers - speak up in press about practises for a company - can be protected by a certain legal status of the whistleblower - in EU difficult. In France, businesses that are represented as - at least control what companies do - give as much protection as can - speak up and show the companies do not do what they say they will do -
Should be able to whistleblowing