The Social Cost of Carbon: Valuing Inequality, Risk, and Population for Climate Policy

The Monist 102 (1):84-109 (2019)
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Abstract

We analyze the role of ethical values in the determination of the social cost of carbon, arguing that the familiar debate about discounting is too narrow. Other ethical issues are equally important to computing the social cost of carbon, and we highlight inequality, risk, and population ethics. Although the usual approach, in the economics of cost-benefit analysis for climate policy, is confined to a utilitarian axiology, the methodology of the social cost of carbon is rather flexible and can be expanded to a broader set of social-welfare approaches. [Open access]

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Author Profiles

Kian Mintz-Woo
University College, Cork
Mark Budolfson
University of Texas at Austin

Citations of this work

Carbon pricing ethics.Kian Mintz-Woo - 2022 - Philosophy Compass 17 (1):e12803.
A philosopher’s guide to discounting.Kian Mintz-Woo - 2021 - In Budolfson Mark, McPherson Tristram & Plunkett David, Philosophy and Climate Change. Oxford University Press. pp. 90-110.
What Do Climate Change Winners Owe, and to Whom?Kian Mintz-Woo & Justin Leroux - 2021 - Economics and Philosophy 37 (3):462-483.
Carbon Tax Ethics.Kian Mintz-Woo - 2024 - WIREs Climate Change 15 (1):e858.
Philosophy’s other climate problem☆.Michael Brownstein & Neil Levy - 2021 - Journal of Social Philosophy 52 (4):536-553.

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References found in this work

Reasons and Persons.Joseph Margolis - 1984 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 47 (2):311-327.
Why We Should Reject S.Derek Parfit - 1984 - In Reasons and Persons. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
The Law of Peoples.John Rawls - 1999 - Philosophical Quarterly 51 (203):246-253.
The Problem of Global Justice.Thomas Nagel - 2005 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 33 (2):113-147.
The Law of Peoples.John Rawls - 1993 - Critical Inquiry 20 (1):36-68.

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