ABSTRACT
This chapter explains why it is critically important to demand explicit reflection at the national level on how specific climate policies have considered or ignored ethical and justice issues that climate change policy-making raises. it also explain why it is impossible to think clearly about what national climate commitments should be until policymakers respond to several clear ethical questions. Climate change is a civilization challenging issue that has features that scream for attention that it be understood as essentially an ethical problem for nations, a fact that has profound consequences for national policy formation and a fact that policy-makers in nations have not acknowledged. This budget is of profound significance for national, state and regional global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions targets, yet it has been infrequently discussed in national discussions about climate change policy. Citizens concerned about climate change need to demand that the national-level debate about climate change policies expressly identifies the ethical and justice failures of national policy.
