ABSTRACT
Chapters 3 through 7 have examined ethical issues arising in arguments that have been front and center in the 35-year debate about climate change policies. This chapter examines issues that are critical for diminishing climate change’s immense threat, yet are notable because they have largely been ignored in the three and half decade debate about climate change. As we have seen throughout this book, much of the 35-year debate about climate change has focused on the duties and responsibilities of nations to reduce their emissions to their fair share of safe global emissions. When climate change has been debated in the United States and many other countries, the subject under discussion was almost exclusively about what the national government should do. This chapter now examines the duties of sub-national governments, organizations, businesses, and individuals to limit their greenhouse gas emissions to reduce the threat of climate change. It will argue that the international community’s preoccupation with the obligations of nations is partly responsible for its failure to achieve significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions worldwide.
