GS4 · 20 marks · 250 words

The challenge of climate change presents the world with several fundamental ethical dilemmas. From a global perspective, it presents the world with a collective action problem: all countries have a collective interest in controlling global carbon emissions. But each individual country also has incentives to over-consume in response to societal demands for economic growth and prosperity. Developing nations faced with these costs may encounter further challenges as the impact of climate change will most likely fall disproportionally on the poor, thus also raising issues of fairness and inequality. As an intergenerational problem, the consequences of actions taken by the current generation will have the greatest impact on future generations. While it is intuitive that the current generation has some ethical responsibility to leave an inhabitable world to future generations, the extent of this obligation is less clear. Answer the following questions in this regard: (a) To what extent do humans have a moral responsibility to future generations that are yet to be born? (b) Do developed countries have a greater responsibility to take action and bear more costs of controlling climate change than developing countries?

Answered by 3 toppers · CSE 2019–2024

Syllabus: Public/Civil service values and Ethics in Public administration: Status and problems; ethical concerns and dilemmas in government and private institutions; laws, rules, regulations and conscience as sources of ethical guidance; accountability and ethical governance; strengthening of ethical and moral values in governance; ethical issues in international relations and funding; corporate governance.

How toppers approached it

From all 3 answers · about 280 words.

Opening

  • No separate opening3 of 3

Body

  • Points3 of 3

Close

  • No separate close1 of 3
  • A summary1 of 3
  • A way forward1 of 3

The toppers’ answers

Ganesh Kumar BaskarAIR 7 · CSE 2019 · 90 wordsTheir whole copy

Opening · one block, no separate opening

The case discusses the issue of climate change which is a foremost example of tragedy of commons - as everyone gains from reversal but every individual or nation or generation has incentive to cheat.

Body · points

(a) Moral responsibility to future generation (1) Trusteeship and steward ethics dictate that, present generation is not the owner but only a trustee. They have right to use but also the duty to protect environment.

Close · one block, no separate close

(2) As per the Brundtland Report, the definition of sustainable development requires that the needs of future generations are also protected.

More on Environmental Ethics

Obligation towards the non-human and the unborn: sustainability, animal welfare, intergenerational equity, development against ecology.

All GS4 questions on Environmental Ethics