Kyoto Protocol The Wrongdoer Identity Problem

The impacts of climate change have progressed so far, making it impossible to end since the first signs of global warming arose at the beginning of the 20th century (Background on the UNCCC, 2014). Industrialized nations are heavily bound by climate change treaties as they set out goals for emission reductions (Background on the UNCCC, 2014). The Kyoto Protocol only applies to first world countries, as they have released the utmost amounts of gases into the air (Background on the UNCCC, 2014). Furthermore, the notion of “common but differentiated responsibilities” states that all countries are supposed to be addressing climate change although; they aren’t all equally liable (Making those first steps count: An Introduction to the Kyoto Protocol, 2014). There are two types of justices that can be related to climate change; distributive justice and corrective justice (Posner and Sunstein, 1567). However; in this paper the corrective justice approach would be argued as it relies on moral perceptions, dealing with offenders and their victims (Posner & Sunstein, 1591). According to corrective justice, difficulties will be experienced in political-decision making negotiations as it is a moral idea dealing with historical incorrect behavior (Posner & Sunstein, 1592). The majority of the world believes that the first world countries initially engaged in wrongful behavior as they have contributed the most to global warming (Posner & Sunstein, 1592). One of the complications is that, it does not take the current developing countries into consideration who are emitting vast amounts of gases into the air (Neumayer, 182). In this paper, the different identity problems will be introduced and will be connected to the Bosnia-Serbia conflict. Additionally, the culpability problem will be related to the Bosnia-Serbia atrocity making it a sufficiently constructed moral theory. The wrongdoer identity problem states that because the initial signs of global warming arose as a result of people who are now dead, it makes it inappropriate for modern Americans to be held accountable (Posner & Sunstein, 1593). The victim/claimant identity problem outlines that there must be a relationship between the victim and claimant (Posner & Sunstein, 1595). Therefore, through an analysis of the Bosnia- Serbia conflict it becomes clearly evident that the genocide can be related to …show more content…
The main argument of corrective justice is that it is impossible to make them pay and hold them accountable for their decisions as they are now deceased (Posner, and Sunstein, 1593). Consequently, it is not morally acceptable to hold contemporary Americans liable for the actions of their forefathers (Posner, and Sunstein, 1593). Modern Americans are trying to censor their behaviors in order to keep the emissions at a minimum (Posner, and Sunstein, 1593). They can only be forced to compensate if they are profiting from the pollution-causing activities that were initiated by their forefathers (Posner, and Sunstein, 1593). Without a doubt, it can be said that modern Americans are in fact benefiting from the past emissions, which can be seen through their high standard of living, new technologies, and modern healthcare (Posner, and Sunstein, 1593). In negotiations it would become nearly impossible to hold modern Americans accountable. This is because, various American inhabitants today are all offspring of immigrants instead of the descendants of the people who have initiated the emissions (Posner, and Sunstein, 1593). By analyzing the Bosnia-Serbia conflict it becomes clearly evident that there will be problems in