The Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement ethical framework is based on mostly the Western ethical framework. It does have some of the Eastern and Indigenous Tribal frameworks in it as well. The Paris Agreement is about how by tackling climate change it plans to maximize global utility by reducing greenhouse emissions to limit global warming. The Paris Agreement is about how to address the global challenge of climate change. The Parris Agreement has all three ethical frameworks with the Western framework it focuses on justice and fairness which is about the principles. (The Paris Agreement, n.d.)
The principles are about the responsibility the nations and the developed nations have for the project of addressing climate change. It also covers the individual rights of the agreement it is about the respect and considering the human rights in all climate actions. The second framework is the Eastern ethical framework which has harmony and balance and collective responsibility. Harmony and balance are about the protection of the environment and help promote harmony between humans and nature. The collective responsibility is about how it encourages international cooperation to help tackle the global challenges of climate change. The third ethical
framework is Indigenous Tribal it is about the nature part of the agreement. It will talk about respect for nature, intergenerational equity, and holistic thinking. Respect for nature is about the importance of the ecosystem and helps to encourage the use of nature-based approaches for climate change. Then you have the intergenerational equity which is about the future generations.
The last holistic approach is where you can interlink between climate change and other issues it might have.
There where over 195 parties that signed the treaty that is including the European Union.
(The Paris Agreement, n.d.)
There are two ways that the ethical frameworks influenced the nations to sign the treaty which are consequentialism and distributive justice. The consequentialism justice helped by appealing to the nations by recognizing the severe consequences of climate change and how they need to act fast. The second one is the distributive justice helped the nations by acknowledging the lesser historical contribution to climate change and to help find assistance for mitigation efforts. There were over 175 countries that signed the treaty for the Paris Agreement they started signing on April 22
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(List of Parties that signed the Paris Agreement on 22 April, 2016)
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