Ethical issues of climate change and land use related climate policies

Our research adresses ethical issues on two levels. We deal with systematic questions in basic research and with their applications to climate change and land-use related climate policies in inter- and transdisciplinary co-operations. Systematic topics are encompassing substantial and formal issues of value theory for example integrating conflicting values in such a way that the constraints the concept of sustainability are taken into account, the rationality of preferences, principles of decision-making for example the precautionary principle and responsibility for future generations.

Projects

• Ethical Analysis of Policy Arguments in Climate-Related Land Use Decisions
  This project forms a part of the larger interdisciplinary project "Climate Policy Making for Enhanced Technological and Institutional Innovations" of the Competence Center Environment and Sustainability of the ETH Domain (CCES-CLIMPOL).
  Contact: Urs Allenspach
  
  
• Values at Stake and Justified Choice among Policies Regarding CH4 Fluxes
  Contact: Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn
  
  
• Natur und Moral in der Umweltdebatte (completed)
  Contact: Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn
  

Key publications

Allenspach, Urs 2009. (Ir-)rational Würfeln. Studia Philosophica 68, 65-84.

Brun, Georg & Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude 2008. Ranking Policy Options for Sustainable Development. Poiesis & Praxis 5, 15–30. DOI 10.1007/s10202-007-0034-y

Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude & Brun, Georg 2007. Ethische Probleme nachhaltiger Entwicklung. In: Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften SAGW (ed.). Nachhaltige Entwicklung. Nachhaltigkeitsforschung. Perspektiven der Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften. Bern: SAGW, 235–253.