应对气候变化:从责任到能力--兼论能力原则的道德困境

Tackling Climate Change from Responsibility to Capacity:Also on the Moral Dilemma of the Principle of Capability

应对气候变化是全球性责任,需要全球合作并付出前所未有的努力。当前应对气候变化的主流措施大多基于责任原则,如污染者/受益者付费、碳税和碳交易等。这些措施往往只能对全球变暖起到微小的“修补”作用,难以克服资本主义的逐利本性,无法解决各国传统政治和经济利益的相互冲突,无法从根本上实现全球气候治理的目标。为此,应转变伦理路径,从追溯排放者的责任转向激发治理者的能力,以能力原则作为应对全球问题的基本原则,即每个人和每个国家应为气候稳定“各尽所能”地贡献力量。能力原则忽视或回避能力获得方式的公正性问题,其道德诉求是“能力越大、责任越大”,但这一伦理原则需回应“道德绑架”的质疑。能力原则既为应对包括气候变化在内的全球性问题提供了可行思路,也为以利用“虚假道德”为武器、将全球问题拉入道德绑架泥潭而带来的“公地悲剧”提供了伦理对策。

Tackling climate change is a global responsibility that requires global co-operation and unprecedented efforts.Most mainstream approaches to tackling climate change today are predominantly founded on the principle of responsibility,including practices like making polluters or beneficiaries pay,implementing carbon taxes,and engaging in carbon trading.However,these measures can only play a minor role in“fixing”global warming,because they are intertwined with the traditional political and economic interests of all countries,and it is difficult to break away from the profit-seeking nature of capitalism.The goal of climate governance cannot be fundamentally achieved.We should therefore transform the ethic approach,shift from the accountability of the polluters to the ability of the administrators,and take the principle of capacity as one of the basic principles for addressing global issues,whereby every individual and every country should contribute to climate stability to the best of their ability.The principle of capacity ignores or evades the question of justice,i.e.,how the ability is acquired.Its moral appeal is that great power comes with great responsibility,but this kind of ethic principle needs to address the controversy of“moral abduction”.The principle of capability provides a new way of thinking about global issues,including climate change,and provides an ethical weapon for the“tragedy of the commons”brought about by the use of“false morality”as a weapon to drag global issues into the quagmire of moral abduction.