Global Environment and International Inequality

This article suggests that three widely shared commonsense principles of fairness or equity converge upon the same general answer to the question of how the costs of dealing with a global environmental challenge like climate change could be distributed internationally. The first of these principles is that when a party has in the past taken an unfair advantage of others by imposing costs upon them without their consent, those who have been unilaterally put at a disadvantage are entitled to demand that in the future the offending party shoulder burdens that are unequal at least to the extent of the unfair advantage previously taken, in order to restore equality. The second is that, among a number of parties, all of whom are bound to contribute to some common endeavour, the parties who have the most resources normally should contribute the most to the endeavour. The third commonsense principle is that, when a) some people have less than enough for a decent human life, b) other people have more than enough, and c) the total resources available are so great that everyone could have at least enough without preventing some people from still retaining considerably more than others have, it is unfair not to guarantee everyone at least an adequate minimum.