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| SHSviews 26 |
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| UNESCO Social and Human Sciences Sector Magazine |
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| Interview with Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yaï, outgoing Chairman of UNESCO’s Executive Board: “UNESCO should be the locomotive of thinking on governance” / Dossier – Focus on Senegal / Reader's Forum: “The choice of social capital”, by José Fogaça – October-December 2009 (English | Français) |
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 Climate change: rising to the ethical challenge
Hardly anyone would deny that climate change constitutes one of humanity’s most urgent challenges. However, the exact nature of the challenge remains unclear.
We need to understand climate change as a constellation of extremely complex phenomena in order to lay out coherent and credible scenarios for its possible development. This calls for a concerted scientific effort, focusing on the most urgent needs, in recognition of the universal right “to share in scientific advancement and its benefits” (article 27.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).
We need also to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the basis of fair burden sharing that does not impede legitimate expectations of development.
We need, finally, to soften the impact of climate change to enable States and populations to adapt without damaging their vital interests.
In other words, at every level of action – scientific knowledge, mitigation, adaptation – the key, inherently ethical issue is responsibility.
To quote the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, “The Parties should protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind, on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.” (article 3.1).
But how to balance the interests of present and future generations? What type of response to the challenges of climate change would be truly “equitable”? Which responsibilities are truly “common” and which are “differentiated”? Do those who have the “capacity” to act have a duty to do so, regardless of their historical contribution to greenhouse gas emissions?
These unresolved ethical questions are hard enough in theory. In practice, for the past 15 years, they have hampered the establishment of an agreed international framework for action that might rise to the challenge the planet faces.
Thus, we confront an urgent problem, the ethical nature of which cannot be denied. Yet we lack an ethical language that everyone can subscribe to, with due respect for the diversity of interests and values. How can we disentangle ourselves?
In other areas – for example, cultural diversity and bioethics – the international community has succeeded in making an explicit commitment to general principles that can guide action at all levels of competence. Their capacity to do so depends on developing a common language that clearly expresses shared fundamental values. In the face of climate change too, this is the kind of consensus we need to aim at.
Pierre Sané
Assistant Director-General of UNESCO
for Social and Human Sciences
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