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Title: Risk-Averse Sufficientarianism
Subtitle: The Imposition of Risks of Rights-Violations in the Context of Climate Change
Author(s): MEYER, Lukas H. , STELZER, Harald
Journal: Ethical Perspectives
Volume: 25    Issue: 3   Date: 2018   
Pages: 447-470
DOI: 10.2143/EP.25.3.3285425

Abstract :
Climate change induced uncertainties raise important challenges to normative theory. By their actions, people currently living do not necessarily harm future people, but rather they impose risks of rights-violations on them. This raises important questions. How should we weigh the climate change induced impositions of risks on future people? How can we comparatively assess the imposition of these risks on the interests of currently living people and the costs, harms and forgone benefits induced by climate change policies? By outlining a risk-averse interpretation of intergenerational sufficientarianism, we provide a framework for answering some of these questions. After developing basic elements of intergenerational sufficientarianism, we argue in favour of a risk-averse interpretation of weak sufficientarianism and discuss the implications of this approach in the context of responding to climate change.

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