Objective
Climate change is considered one of the most severe challenges facing humankind. Warming of the climate is expected to have profound global impacts, not only on the Earth as a physical system, but also on the well-being of humans, and on societies and economies. Two fundamental policy approaches exist to reduce the environmental, economic and social threats posed by climate change: mitigation (greenhouse gas emission reduction) and adaptation. Both policies involve significant theoretical and policy challenges that need to be addressed to secure the development of efficient and well-advised climate strategies. The overall aim of this research project is to improve European climate policy by addressing a set of decision theoretical and ethical questions that arise as society adapts to climate change. More specifically, the research objectives of the proposal are to: i) provide a decision theoretical analysis of the timing of different climate adaptation measures, ii) investigate a set of philosophical problems associated with the valuation of future consequences of climate adaptation policies, and iii) assess the usefulness of multi-objective decision support tools in the management of goal conflicts arising in the context of climate adaptation. The project will be carried out at the Department of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), which is currently ranked number one in the philosophy of social science according to the Philosophical Gourmet Report. An important part of the research will consist in analysing different policy approaches to climate adaptation in Sweden and the UK, the understanding of which will make a strong contribution to future EU adaptation initiatives and strengthen European competitiveness in the field of philosophically informed climate policy research.
Fields of science
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomics
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringecosystem-based managementclimate change adaptation
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- social sciencespolitical sciences
- humanitiesphilosophy, ethics and religionphilosophy
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)Coordinator
WC2A 2AE London
United Kingdom