Daniel Steel | Speed and Justice in the Transition to Carbon Neutrality | Philosophy Speaker Series

Abstract: This article examines the relationship between speed and justice in a transition to renewable energy. Work on this topic often suggests a dilemma between a fast but unjust transition and a transition that is just but too slow to meet urgent climate targets. In this article, we show that arguments underlying this dilemma rest on questionable assumptions. Rejecting these assumptions suggests that it may be possible to concurrently promote both justice and speedy reductions of greenhouse gasses. In light of this, we argue that inductive risks provide a moral reason to accept, in the context of policy making on climate change, that justice will not delay a renewable energy transition.

Daniel Steel is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics and the School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia. His work focuses on values and ethics at the crossroads of science, environmental policy, and public health. He is the author of Across the Boundaries: Extrapolation in Biology and Social Science (Oxford University Press, 2008), Philosophy and the Precautionary Principle: Science, Evidence and Environmental Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2015), as well as numerous articles. He is presently the principal investigator of an ongoing research project titled “Climate Change and Civilization Collapse.”