Climate Ethics and Climate Economics: Risk, Uncertainty and Catastrophe Scenarios (Invite only workshop)

Scholars have warned that there is an uncertain chance of runaway climate change that could devastate the planet. At least since Hans Jonas’s The Imperative of Responsibility, some have argued that even low-probability existential risks should be treated in a fundamentally different way. How should we act when we believe that there is a chance of a catastrophe, but cannot make reliable probability estimates? How much should we worry about worst-case scenarios? What should we do when experts disagree about whether catastrophe is possible?

These are some of the questions that were posed at the fifth of six ESRC-funded workshops exploring issues where the ethics and economics of climate change intersect. It was held at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.