THE PARIS CONFERENCE, COMPENSATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Abstract

Author(s): Attfield, Robin; Beattie, Melissa | Abstract: The silence of the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 about compensation for harms inflicted by carbon emissions of the past cannot obliterate the obligations of the developed countries that caused these omissions to make reparations to affected developing countries. This article includes in its scope the grounds of these obligations and the forms that such compensation might take, and their relation to adaptation. By way of methodology, we employ both ethical analysis and the application of ethical findings to areas such as technology transfer and early-warning systems. We also argue that geo-engineering should not be included among the forms that compensation might adopt. Our aim is to foster among countries responsible for carbon emissions an enhanced awareness of imaginative ways in which the harms they have caused can be mitigated or ameliorated.