Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Steven Cohen is executive director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and professor in the practice of public affairs at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He is also director of the masters program in sustainability management at Columbia's School of Continuing Education. At SIPA, Cohen directs the MPA in environmental science and policy, as well as the concentration in energy and environmental policy. He has served as a policy analyst and consultant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies. His books include Sustainability Management: Lessons from and for New York City, America, and the Planet and The Effective Public Manager, now in its fourth edition. Cohen is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.

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Understanding Environmental Policy

Columbia University Press

Chapter One

Global Climate Change as an Issue of Values

One cause of climate change, as we saw in all the environmental problems discussed so far, is our lifestyle choices, which are determined by our values. Behaviors based on these values have resulted in population growth and extensive use of fossil fuels. The philosophy of living for the moment that pervades our culture limits our interest as a society in addressing climate change. The true dangers of global warming will occur in the future. Because the effects cannot be predicted precisely, they are removed from current reality. The public responds far more quickly to environmental problems that immediately affect their personal lives. Air and water pollution and the hazard of toxic substances provoke a faster and more active response than climate change because the impacts of the former are immediate.

The effects of global climate change are complex and difficult to see. Many of them will not become apparent for several decades. Social learning is required if climate change is to achieve status on the systemic and institutional policy agenda. We need to imagine that we ourselves are living in the future and experiencing the negative impact of global warming. Analysts who examine the solvency of the social security system face the same challenge, for most of the people who will be harmed if the system goes broke have more immediate financial worries to focus on and so the system's solvency does not get on the policy agenda.

Another value dimension to the issue stems from the question of equity. Do people in the developed world have an unlimited right to burn fossil fuels to maintain their lifestyles while denying that same right to people in developing countries who are aspiring to a more consumptive lifestyle? A second equity concern is the greater vulnerability of poor people to the effects of climate change. Very often a wealthy nation can defend its settlements and food supplies against the negative impact of an extreme climate event. For example, the effects of droughts can be mitigated by irrigation, and the damage from floods can be fixed if massive amounts of capital are available to pay the costs of reconstruction. Poorer nations, on the other hand, lack the resources required for these kinds of responses. In his book American Heat: Ethical Problems with the United States' Response to Global Warming, Donald A. Brown (2002) takes the position that, because global warming has had and will continue to have a disproportionately large negative impact on poorer countries, reductions in emissions are a moral imperative. To Brown, the question that remains is how much reduction is needed, and, in his view, "no matter which ethical rule is followed on deciding on an atmospheric stabilization goal, the status quo on global warming emissions is ethically reprehensible" (232).

I do not agree that the ethical dimensions of climate change are as stark as Brown believes, but that ethics is one facet of the problem is clear. Because the science of climate change is uncertain, and because much of the impact will occur only in the future, I find the ethical dimension of the issue somewhat ambiguous. The key moral issue posed is that poor nations and poor people will probably be disproportionately affected by the climate change. Such change is also likely to worsen the environmental, social, and economic problems that lead to extreme poverty in the first place. Greenhouse emissions are clearly harmful, and we have an ethical obligation to reduce the threat of global warming for the most vulnerable among us, as well as for future generations. The political potency of this issue is rooted in its ethical dimensions.

Global Climate Change as a Political Issue

The industries that stand to lose the most from having limits set on greenhouse gas emissions are those that produce oil and energy (Levy and Newell 2004, 194). The Bush administration has evinced extremely close ties to both, particularly the oil industry. A powerful force motivating the administration to question the science of global climate change was the financial and political power of the American oil industry. It was not surprising, of course, that President Bush, the former governor of a major oil state with a large base of campaign contributors in the oil industry, was on the side of the oil industry with regard to reducing greenhouse emissions despite campaign promises to the contrary in 2000. The fundamental logic of this position is that reducing greenhouse emissions will cost money that could otherwise be spent by consumers on goods or services or by the government on services or infrastructure, which would earn elected leaders political credit from constituents. The other side of the political equation is that enforcing emission reduction policies would gain elected leaders credit from environmentalists.

Climate change is more a science and technology issue than a political one. No one is in favor of global warming, but those opposed to strong measures to reduce C[O.sub.2] emissions tend not to believe that the cost of such measures outweighs the benefits. Although certain businesses will be disadvantaged by the costs, overall it appears that higher environmental standards have indirectly advanced the modernization of American industry, creating wealth by creating cleaner environments. The operation of sewage treatment plants, for example, has not only resulted in clean rivers but has also contributed to the development and value of waterfront property. Policies that reduce greenhouse emissions may make certain cities more livable in the summer and might therefore encourage factories to invest in overall plant modernization. These investments, in turn, could increase competition, an economic plus. Thus, if the cost of mitigating climate change turned out to be a good investment, elected leaders supporting such policies would benefit politically. However, if these policies caused companies to close down plants in the United States or move to developing countries with less stringent greenhouse gas regulations, political supporters could suffer at the polls.

An elected leader's stance on the issue of global warming is symbolic of his or her attitude toward environmentalism. A large environmentalist constituency, and an energetic interest group community, is actively engaged in national and international environmental issues. But global warming did not (and, again, excuse the pun) generate much political heat in the United States until 2001, when President Bush came out against the Kyoto Protocol. The paradox is that Bush's opposition may have taken a relatively low-intensity international issue and given it domestic political currency in the United States. He may have had the same inadvertent impact on the issue's standing in the international community. During the 2004 presidential campaign, Bush's position on climate change was part of a set of issues that environmentalists cited as evidence of his anti-environmental stance. Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman seized this issue as a way to delineate their own brand of moderate, mainstream environmentalism, and also, perhaps, to tweak a president whom neither was very fond of. The energy industry and other businesses opposed...