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Reaching Agreement Through Fair Process

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Abstract

Chapter 2 showed that there is reasonable disagreement over some of the ends that the UNFCCC should achieve. This chapter builds on this finding by showing that, where there is reasonable disagreement over such ends, fair decision-making processes gain additional importance. That is, this chapter makes a case for the importance of fair procedures in the UNFCCC. It does so in three steps. First, it discusses the relative merits of fair procedures, arguing that, whilst fair procedures are important in themselves, there are sometimes trade-offs between designing a process that is procedurally fair and designing a process to meet other more pressing ends. Second, it argues that, whilst there is disagreement in the UNFCCC, there is also agreement over some of its ends, most importantly, that it should collectively limit emissions to avoid causing dangerous climate change. Further, given certain specific characteristics associated with climate change, achieving this goal requires meeting certain criteria, including stringency, urgency, and voluntary cooperation. This means that it is important to find a way of reaching agreement in the UNFCCC even when there is reasonable disagreement over some of the ends that it should bring about. Third, given these specific characteristics and requirements, and given the existence of reasonable disagreement, I show that fair procedures theoretically provide a way of reaching agreement in the UNFCCC even when there is reasonable disagreement over the ends that it should pursue.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Several theorists hold that procedures are intrinsically important: Beitz 1989; Christiano 1996; Waldron 1999.

  2. 2.

    See: Lange et al. 2007; Bäckstrand 2010, p. 1; Eckersley 2012.

  3. 3.

    For discussion, see: Dubash 2009, p. 8; Bäckstrand 2010, p. 1.

  4. 4.

    See: IISD 2010, p. 3.

  5. 5.

    For example: Agarwal and Narain 1991; Bruce et al. 1995, p. 84; Gupta 2000; Chasek and Rajamani 2003.

  6. 6.

    For more on the potentially catastrophic nature of climate change, see: Schneider and Lane 2006.

  7. 7.

    Not everyone agrees with this view, and some argue that a more stringent temperature target is needed in order to avoid dangerous climate change (see: Heyward 2007; Steinacher et al. 2013).

  8. 8.

    See: UNFCCC 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014; MEF 2009.

  9. 9.

    See also, den Elzen 2010.

  10. 10.

    These points draw from those in Allen et al. 2009a; Stern 2014.

  11. 11.

    For discussion, see: Hare and Meinshausen 2006; Allen et al. 2009a.

  12. 12.

    See: Patz et al. 2005; Human Rights Council 2008.

  13. 13.

    See: Hare and Meinshausen 2006; Rogelj et al. 2011.

  14. 14.

    Several authors argue that argue that the 2 °C target will soon become unachievable: IPCC 2007; Peters et al. 2013, p. 5.

  15. 15.

    Schneider and Lane 2006; For climate change tipping points see: Lenton 2011; Voorhar and Myllyvirta 2012; for abrupt climate change, see: Alley et al. 2005.

  16. 16.

    See: Matthews and Solomon 2013.

  17. 17.

    For discussions of this point, see: den Elzen et al. 2006; IEA 2011; Dirix et al. 2013.

  18. 18.

    Allen et al. make this point, although not in support of Lomborg’s argument (Allen et al. 2009a).

  19. 19.

    See: McCrone et al. 2012; REN21 2013.

  20. 20.

    See: Joshi et al. 2011.

  21. 21.

    Hurd 1999. For discussions relating this point to the UNFCCC, see: Wiener 1999, p. 769; Höhne et al. 2002, p. 10.

  22. 22.

    There is a strong line of literature supporting this premise: Barrett and Stavins 2003; Vogler 2005; Chasek et al. 2006, p. 208.

  23. 23.

    For more on this point: Hoel 1992; Barrett 1994, 1998.

  24. 24.

    I take this point from: Birnie 1988, p. 113.

  25. 25.

    These measures are proposed in Aldy et al. (2001) and Nordhaus (1998).

  26. 26.

    Thomas Franck argues that states obey international laws even when it is not in their interest to do so at least partly on account of the fairness of these laws (Franck 1995, p. 26). Peter Lawrence suggests that states may comply with an agreement if they feel that it is procedurally fair (Lawrence 2014, p. 16). For more on this point, see Barrett 2003.

  27. 27.

    Barrett and Stavins 2003, p. 360.

  28. 28.

    Bottom-up processes involve voluntary mitigation pledges that are defined unilaterally (Bodansky 2012, p. 1).

  29. 29.

    See: Christoff 2006; King et al. 2011, p. 19.

  30. 30.

    For proponents, see: Prins and Rayner 2007; Prins et al. 2010.

  31. 31.

    Waldron suggests that two pragmatic procedures for decision-making might be tossing a coin or nominating one person to act as a leader (Waldron 1999, p. 113).

  32. 32.

    Waldron 1999, p. 113. Note that continued deliberation and minilateralism may also fall short on this point.

  33. 33.

    Thibaut and Walker 1975; Walker et al. 1979.

  34. 34.

    For discussion of perfect procedural justice, see: Kelsen 1955.

  35. 35.

    See, Rawls 1971.

  36. 36.

    For discussion of pure procedural justice see: Kelsen 1955; Rawls 1971, 1999; Nelson 1980; Arneson 2004.

  37. 37.

    In this sense, the outcomes generated by a fair procedure are themselves fair. A related view might hold that, whilst there is disagreement on substantive justice, there is agreement on procedural justice, and that the outcomes generated by a fair process should be accepted as second best alternatives to persistent disagreement. For more on this, see: Arneson 2004.

  38. 38.

    Jeremy Waldron claims that the fact that there is disagreement about an issue does not necessarily imply that there is no objectively right or correct outcome (Waldron 1999).

  39. 39.

    This is similar to Thomas Christiano’s account of ‘moderate proceduralism’, which recognises that democratic processes have intrinsic value whilst also placing limits on the substantive outcomes that these processes can achieve (Christiano 2008, p. 295).

  40. 40.

    David Miller makes a similar argument about the role of deliberative democracy (Miller 2007). Thomas Christiano argues that democracy can provide a way of making decisions that treats each citizen equally when there are disagreements about justice and the common good in society (Christiano 2008, p. 75).

  41. 41.

    Waldron notes that majority rule is not the only way of awarding sufficient respect in a decision-making process (Waldron 1999, p. 111).

  42. 42.

    Richard Arneson takes this view (Arneson 2004).

  43. 43.

    Several authors suggest that there are certain constraints on the outcomes that multilateral institutions should bring about, for example: Buchanan and Keohane 2006.

  44. 44.

    Here I have in mind something along the lines of Gutmann and Thompsons account of reciprocity (Gutmann and Thompson 1996).

  45. 45.

    For instance, Ronald Dworkin argues that reasonable citizens may disagree about what democracy requires (Dworkin 1996, p. 34).

  46. 46.

    For discussions of disagreement over procedural values see: Waldron 1999; Karlsson 2008; Mansbridge et al. 2010.

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Tomlinson, L. (2015). Reaching Agreement Through Fair Process. In: Procedural Justice in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17184-5_3

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