Climate Ethics

Climate change is widely recognized as one of the most pressing challenges of our time. In engineering practice, responses to climate change are typically guided by three overarching strategies: climate mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions), climate adaptation (adjusting to the effects of a changing climate), and geoengineering (large-scale interventions in the Earth's climate system). At the core of Climate Ethics is the critical examination of the ethical dimensions underpinning these strategies. Both mitigation,  adaptation, and geoengineering often rely heavily on technological innovation. However, addressing climate change is not merely a technical challenge—it is also an ethical one. 

This course explores fundamental ethical questions such as:

• Whose values and interests shape climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, policies, and technologies?

• Who gains and benefits, and who bears the costs?

• What emission allocation models are ethically sound, and under what conditions?

• In what contexts can climate technologies be considered ethically acceptable or problematic?

• What is the role of an engineer in today's world, and is there room for climate action in engineering practice?

Through lecture, class presentations, discussions, and reflections, students will develop and practice their argumentation skills grounded in climate ethics perspectives and positions on the normative complexities of climate change.

The course focuses on (but is not limited to) the following ethical aspects of climate change:

• Historical emissions and the allocation of responsibilities in mitigation and adaptation

• The distribution of burdens and benefits, emission rights, and international negotiations

• Future generations and intergenerational justice

• The implications of climate change for human rights

• New policy developments after the Paris Agreement

• Colonial legacies and climate justice

Climate change is considered to be one of the most urgent problems the world is currently facing. Two types of solutions are proposed namely mitigation and adaptation. Both climate change mitigation and adaptation are heavily relying on the progress of technology. Addressing the climate problem requires, however, more than just developing and applying a certain technology. It demands considerations of whose interests and whose rights are at stake. It also requires reflection on how and "under which condition" technology can change and shape the world for the better.

In this course we will focus on the following ethical aspects of climate change:

- Past emissions and responsibility to deal with climate change

- Implications of global warming on human safety and security

- The distribution of burdens and benefits, emission rights and international justice

- Future generations and intergenerational justice

- New developments after the Paris Agreement

The course will be offered in English and it is primarily for MSc students. Enrollment on Bright Space is sufficient.C