World Ethics and Climate Change: From International to Global Justice (Edinburgh Studies in World Ethics)

Global warming and climate change present profound challenges, with scientific predictions of devastating impact in the coming decades, yet rich countries are doing little to address the problem and developing countries are becoming the largest source of the problem.

Grounded in practical cosmopolitan ethics, this book presents a serious and workable solution to climate change. It particularly addresses the role of individuals, proposing a new way of approaching the global politics of climate change and recommending more explicit involvement of people by incorporating practical cosmopolitan ethics (which focus on the rights and obligations of individuals) into international environmental diplomacy.

Paul G. Harris argues that people in developing countries should join in efforts to limit greenhouse gas pollution, and that this would lead the governments of rich countries, and in turn their citizens, to cut their future pollution, live up to their responsibilities in regards to historical pollution, and aid those who will suffer the most from climate change.