A Luck-Based Moral Defense of Grandfathering

Title data

Schuessler, Rudolf:
A Luck-Based Moral Defense of Grandfathering.
In: Meyer, Lukas H. ; Sanklecha, Pranay (ed.): Climate Justice and Historical Emissions. - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press , 2017 . - pp. 141-164
ISBN 978-1-107-06953-4

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Abstract in another language

Emissions grandfathering aportions emission rights according to historically established emission levels. Only very recently have Bovens (2011) and Knight (2013, 2014) produced the first sustained philosophical defenses of grandfathering. The paper will argue against Bovens’ Lockean justification of emissions grandfathering fails but take up his idea of temporary grandfathering, which will be developed in new directions on the basis of luck-related justice. In contrast to Knight’s (2014) luck egalitarian approach, I will suggest temporary remedies only against brute bad luck that comes in the form of external shocks. It is a shock to find oneself without one’s fault, as the citizens of industrialized countries in 1990, in conditions that require a massive lifestyle change. However, not compensation but time for adaptation to a new situation should in principle be granted to relatively affluent people who are seriously affected by external shocks. This legimitates successive proportional emission cuts in industrialized countries relative to a reference year such as 1990.