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Emerging Norms of International Justice: Global Warming and China's Changing Environment
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Abstract
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In Chapter 7, Donald A. Brown examines the relationship between some of China's environmental problems, namely those of deforestation and global warming (and resulting climate change), in the context of emerging international norms of distributive justice. He argues that there is now recognition among states that some of them have particular responsibilities for actualizing principles of international justice, particularly when dealing with environmental problems. These principles have profound potential importance for international environmental cooperation. In particular, he says that they are the basis for attributing some responsibility to other states for China's environmental problems, as well as the potential responsibility of China for future environmental harm experienced beyond its borders. Other states may be viewed to be partly responsible for the effects of global warming experienced by China, especially given China's relatively low level of historical greenhouse gas emissions compared to the developed states of the world. However, China may also bear some responsibility. When its emissions exceed its equitable share of greenhouse gas emissions (a level that will be difficult to determine), it may become proportionally liable for damages from climate change felt in the rest of the world. As Brown points out, protection of national resources such as forests are usually seen to be the obligations of the states in which the resources are located. Yet, because global environmental problems are now affecting the quality of what were once viewed to be purely national environmental resources, principles of international justice support finding some foreign responsibility for damages to these resources. Determining the amount of responsibility that other states have for damages to domestic environmental resources raises thorny questions of causation that may be difficult to unravel and will be particularly troublesome for those states that have failed to fulfill domestic responsibility to protect the resources in question.
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If developed states want to shoulder some responsibility for damages to the domestic natural resources of China (and other countries), Brown suggests that they could support approaches such as no-fault insurance funds for remedying damages to domestic natural resources caused by global-scale environmental problems. However, even if such funds are created, the burden of proof to separate domestic from international responsibility will likely lie with the developing states. For this reason, it would be in their interest to devise indicators of domestic resource quality so that the they can prove that negative trends resulted from foreign activities. To protect domestic resources from emerging global environmental problems like climate change, it may be necessary for developing states to undertake adaptation measures, such the construction of dykes to protect shorelines from rising oceans, establishing vector-control programs as protections against anticipated increases in vector-borne diseases, and creating alternative water supplies to substitute for anticipated reductions in existing water resources. By taking these and additional steps to deal with environmental damages as they occur, it should be easier for developing states such as China to make the case that principles of international justice entitle them to financial support for adaptation measures. The upshot is that emerging norms of international environmental justice are important aspects of global efforts to protect the natural environment. Brown believes that the international community has two clear options: It can either create institutions that are capable of resolving conflicts over these issues, or it can allow states that will be harmed by these emerging global environmental problems to fend for themselves. The latter option will not, of course, provide the resources that are essential if international environmental cooperation and associated actions at the national level are to succeed.