Climate Ethics – interview with Prof. Metschl and Prof. Musu

A seminar organized by the International Center for Climate Governance (ICCG) , held on May 27th, 2014, on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice provided the occasion for two VIU professors to discuss the ethical implications of climate change. Prof. Ignazio Musu (VIU-TEN Center President and professor at Ca’ Foscari University) and Prof. Ulrich Metschl (University of Innsbruck and Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich) addressed arguments related to recent debates concerning the ethical implications of climate change raised by questions of fairness with respect to the distribution of burdens and shares in meeting the challenges of climate change.

Prof. Metschl argued that the idea of discounting the future is ethically doubtful. Justice between generations, in a sense related to sustainability, should rather be seen as the outcome of a fair process of preference aggregation, despite the obvious difficulties of hypothesizing about the needs, desires or preferences of future generations.

The presentation of Prof. Ignazio Musu focused on the ethical arguments concerning the problem of deciding the appropriate discount rate in climate change issues compared with other areas of concern.

A video interview with the two lecturers was realized after the event to summarize their views on the subject. The video is available online at this link.