Towards a Practical Climate Ethics: Combining Two Approaches to Guide Ethical Decision-Making in Concrete Climate Governance Contexts

Voisard, Anthony; Wallimann-Helmer, Ivo

doi:10.1080/21550085.2023.2236504

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voisard_wallimann-helmer_2024_towardsapracticalclimateethics

Journal article

Towards a Practical Climate Ethics: Combining Two Approaches to Guide Ethical Decision-Making in Concrete Climate Governance Contexts

DOKPE

Voisard, Anthony ORCID University of Fribourg
Wallimann-Helmer, Ivo ORCID University of Fribourg

2023

Published in:

Ethics, Policy & Environment. - London, UK: Informa UK Limited. - 2023, vol. 27, no. 3, p. 333-349

methodology of midlevel principles

English This paper discusses two approaches to climate ethics for practical reflection and decision-making in concrete local climate change governance. After a brief review of the main conceptual frameworks in climate ethics research, we show that none of these leading approaches is sufficiently context specific and pluralistic to provide guidance appropriate for concrete local climate governance. As alternatives, we present principlism as a methodology of midlevel principles and environmental pragmatism as an ethical approach. We argue that the two methodologies of principlism and pragmatism offer a new pluralistic framework that allows realworld conditions and contexts to be properly integrated into ethical analysis and decision-making in climate governance.

Faculty

Faculté des sciences et de médecine

Department

Département de Géosciences

Language