US and Climate Change

The United States has a moral obligation to mitigate the effects of climate change. According to a report by the Global Humanitarian Forum “Climate change is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our times.” The 2007 UN Human Development Program (UNHDP) report noted that climate change will bring about “unprecedented reversals in poverty reduction, nutrition, health and education” as the limited resources of vulnerable nations are used to mitigate the droughts, floods and other environmental stressors of climate change rather than dealing with social needs. Furthermore according to a report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, 300,000 lives are lost each year due to climate change, with an annual death toll estimated to reach 500,000 by 2030. It is imperative that the United States intervenes on the behalf of developing nations in order to mitigate these negative outcomes.

According to the Josephoninstitute, agreement is a source of moral obligation “even if an agreement doesn’t reach the level of an enforceable contract, there is a moral obligation to do the things we agree to do, especially if others are counting on us to do so.” In the 2010 COP new pledges have been made by developed countries (including the US) to jointly mobilize 30 billion dollars a year for the period of 2010-2012, and 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to address the mitigation and adaptation needs of developing countries. Furthermore at the Bali conference, the US along with other developed nations agreed to provide financial and technological assistance to developing countries, to help them adapt to climate change. These pledges morally bind the US to provide assistance to developing nations in order to mitigate the effects of climate change.

According to the Journal of Ethics and the Environment, in our present circumstances, those who have contributed the most to climate change are those who are the least vulnerable and the best able to adapt to the impacts of climate change (with, for example, heating and air conditioning, dikes, irrigation, and increased health care), while those who have contributed the least are the most vulnerable and the least able to adapt to the consequences of climate change (e.g., drought, desertification, flooding, and extreme weather patterns.) Furthermore according to the Economist, even though developing countries account for 80% of the world population, their citizens’ carbon footprints are much smaller than those of citizens of developed nations. Based on moral reasoning, those countries that are proportionally the most responsible for climate change should also bear the proportional responsibility for mitigating the effects of their abuses. Since the United States has contributed greatly to the rise in carbon emissions, it has a responsibility to the rest of the world to help lessen the severity of the problem.