Donald A. Brown

Sustainable Development: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy

1: Introduction D. A. Brown, J. Lemons. 2: The Role of Science in Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection Decisionmaking J. Lemons and D. A. Brown. 3: The Role of Ethics in Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection Decisionmaking D. A. Brown. 4: The Role of Economics in Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection D. A. Brown. 5: The Role of Law in Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection Decisionmaking D. A. Brown. 6: Conservation of Biodiversity and Sustainable Development J. Lemons, P. Morgan. 7: Climate Change and Sustainable Development J. Lemons, R. Heredia, D. Jamieson, C. Spash. 8: Protection of Marine and Freshwater Resources L. Canter, K. Ott, D. A. Brown. 9: Toxic Substances and Agenda 21: Ethical and Policy Issues in the Science and its Implementation C. F. Cranor. 10: Nuclear Waste and Agenda 21 K. Shrader-Frechette. 11: Summary of the Scientific, Ethical and Public Policy Recommendations for Sustainable Development J. Lemons, D. A. Brown. Index.

The Importance of Expressly Examining Global Warming Policy Issues Through an Ethical Prism

This paper argues that it is practically important to expressly examine the ethical dimensions of many global warming issues that are now usually discussed exclusively in scientific and economic terms. There are several reasons why express ethical analysis of many global warming issues is a practical imperative.

The Role of the National Science Foundation Broader Impacts Criterion in Enhancing Research Ethics Pedagogy

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Second Merit Criterion, or Broader Impacts Criterion (BIC), was introduced in 1997 as the result of an earlier Congressional movement to enhance the accountability and responsibility as well as the effectiveness of federally funded projects. We demonstrate that a robust understanding and appreciation of NSF BIC argues for a broader conception of research ethics in the sciences than is currently offered in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training. This essay advocates augmenting RCR education with training regarding broader impacts. We demonstrate that enhancing research ethics training in this way provides a more comprehensive understanding of the ethics relevant to scientific research and prepares scientists to think not only in terms of responsibly conducted science, but also of the role of science in responding to identified social needs and in adhering to principles of social justice. As universities respond to the mandate from America COMPETES to “provide training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research”, we urge institutions to embrace a more adequate conception of research ethics, what we call the Ethical Dimensions of Scientific Research, that addresses the full range of ethical issues relevant to scientific inquiry, including ethical issues related to the broader impacts of scientific research and practice.

The importance of expressly integrating ethical analyses into climate change policy formation

1 Pennsylvania Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 400 Market Street, 9th Floor-OCC, Box 8464, Harrisburg, PA 17105, USA 2 Department of Environmental Studies, University of New England, Biddeford, ME 04005, USA 3 Rock Ethics Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, 201 Willard Building, University Park, PA 16802-5201, USA

Scientific certainty and the laws that govern location of a potential high-level nuclear waste repository

Recent studies have questioned the ability of the Department of Energy to successfully construct and operate a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA, consistent with current Environmental Protection Agency standards and Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations. Questions focus on whether demonstration of compliance with the agencys standards is based too much on numerical calculations and analyses that the Department of Energy must conduct to project the long-term performance of the repository. Unless these questions are resolved, the licensing of the repository could be withheld or delayed by litigation. This article reviews the extent to which laws that govern the siting of high-level nuclear waste repositories require scientific certainty in any findings about the environmental consequences of locating a repository.

Introduction to the Special Section: Integrating Development Ethics and Climate Change Ethics

Climate change ethics is an emerging field of applied ethics that examines the ethical implications entailed in the various climate change effects on people around the world, future generations, and ecosystems (Brown et al., 2004). Climate change ethics addresses questions such as: what responsibilities and obligations arise from climate change? Who has what kind of responsibilities or obligations to whom and for what reasons? Climate change ethics is particularly concerned with issues of interand intra-generational justice resulting from climate change, for example, what a just share of the burden would be in terms of adaptation costs, compensation for resulting damages and harm, and mitigation obligations and costs (Brown et al., 2004). The themes of climate change ethics intersect with the topics of another field of applied ethics: development ethics. Development ethics focuses on the ethical aspects of societal and global development (Gasper, 2004; Goulet, 2006). It is concerned with ethical issues of local and global relationships, with particular attention to issues of global justice, human needs, human rights, and human security. Development ethics examines, among other things, the definition of development, the ends of and ethical justifications for development, the role of human rights and human security in development processes, and the just share of burdens and benefits related to development (Gasper, 2004; Goulet, 2006). There is indeed a fundamental relationship between the subjects of climate change ethics and development ethics. Climate change is caused by previous development processes and will substantially affect future development options. The complex, longterm, and global interconnections between climate change and development issues make climate change a crucial and particularly challenging topic for development ethics. On the other hand, responses to climate change must consider ethically supportable development aspirations. Both fields also recognize the need to apply ethical analyses to guide realworld problems and actions, and thus frequently consider the ethical issues embedded in political and public discourses.

The Enormity of the Damage Done by the Climate Change Disinformation Campaign as the World Struggles to Implement the Paris Agreement

This chapter explains the enormous damage to people around the world and ecological systems on which hundreds of millions depend caused by a climate change disinformation campaign which has successfully blocked government action to reduce the threat of climate change for almost 50 years in the United States and several other developed countries. This damage is most notable in light of the staggering challenge to the world of limiting future warming to non-catastrophic levels as the international community strives to implement the Paris Agreement (UNFCCC 2015) which was concluded at the twenty-first Conference of the Parties (COP-21) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC 1992) in December, 2015.

Missed Opportunity in Lima: Creating a Process for Examining Equity Considerations in the Formulation of INDCs

After reviewing the basis for urgency of assuring that nations reduce their ghg emissions to their fair share of safe global emissions, this paper examines the outcome of UNFCCC COP-20 in Lima in regard to getting traction for ethics and justice in national formulation of climate change commitments. In light of what is actually known about how nations have considered ethics and justice in formulating national climate change policies, this paper critically reviews elements of a Lima decision on what information nations must include when they submit their emissions reductions commitments, now known as Intended Nationally Determined Commitments (INDCs). The paper argues that some developing countries seeking to preserve distinctions between duties of developed versus developing countries set out in the UNFCCC may have inadvertently undermined a mechanism that had some significant potential to improve the compliance of high-emitting nations on the basis of equity and justice. Relying on recent research on the extent to which nations have actually considered ethics and justice in in formulating national climate policies, the paper argues that a mechanism similar to although stronger than the mechanism in the draft Luna text until it was removed at the instance of some developing nations is urgently needed. The paper predicts that nations will continue to base their INDCs on the basis of economic self-interest rather than what distributive justice requires of them unless they forced to respond to questioning by the international community about the ethical basis for their ghg emissions reduction commitments.

Achieving Traction for Ethical Principles in Climate Change Negotiation Outcomes after Durban

Preliminary elements of a practical strategy are described to achieve greater traction for ethical principles to guide international efforts to achieve a just global climate change solution. This paper begins with an ethical review of the major elements of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties 17 outcomes in Durban, South Africa that will be further considered at Conference of Parties 18 in Qatar, December 2012. This analysis then draws conclusions about how to generate greater consideration of the ethical issues that need to be faced if international climate change negotiations have any hope of creating a just global solution to climate change. It will then be argued that the key to obtaining greater traction of ethical principles in climate policy formation is to create greater global awareness of the unjust or ethically unsupportable positions of participants in climate change negotiations, rather than focusing on abstract arguments about what ethics and justice requires.

Ethical Limitations of the Copenhagen Accord: A Response to Development Ethics and the Copenhagen Accord: How Important Are the Global Poor? By Allen Thompson

Allen Thompson’s review of the ClimateEthics article entitled ‘‘A Comprehensive Ethical Analysis of the Copenhagen Accord.’’ is a welcome response to the objective of ClimteEthics, namely to provoke thoughtful discussion of the ethical dimensions climate change policies. In fact, Thompson’s assertion that some of the arguments made in my article deserve further discussion ClimateEthics agrees with without reservation. In the article to which Thompson replies, ClimateEthics asserted that: