Intertemporal ethics , distribution , discounting , climate change
Abstract:
The evaluation of long-term effects of climate change in cost-benefit analysis has a long tradition
in environmental economics. Since the publication of the Stern Review in 2006 the debate about the
"appropriate" discounting of future welfare and utility levels was revived and the most renowned scholars
of the profession participated in this debate. In two recent contributions in Environmental and Resource
Economics, there was dispute about intertemporal welfare economics between Partha Dasgupta and John
Roemer about the correct interpretation of the topic. The aim of this work is to bring together economic
and philosophical reasoning about justice and intergenerational equity in the context of climate change.
So we adopt the normative view in order to present the most important ethical issues that, particularly in
the context of climate policy, are most relevant for the choice of intertemporal discounting. Subsequently
we explore whether ethical considerations may also be helpful to justify pure social discounting per se.
Das Dokument wird vom Publikationsserver der Universitätsbibliothek Mannheim bereitgestellt.