Climate Emergency and the Right to Exclude

Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs 

Center for European Studies presents 

Climate Emergency and the Right to Exclude

Some climate activists and political philosophers have suggested that migration to wealthy countries such as the UK and the countries of the European Union may need to be restricted in order to reduce carbon emissions. Such arguments are, ironically, the flip side of some pro-migration arguments from economists. Starting from a methodological framework that rules governing human mobility have to be justifiable to everyone, I argue that restrictions that push the costs of climate mitigation onto those who are already suffering from its consequences are unjustified, but that intensifies the obligation of the already-wealthy to pursue rapid decarbonization.

Christopher Bertram

University of Bristol, UK

Christopher Bertram is Emeritus Professor in Social and Political Philosophy at the University of Bristol and author of Do States Have the Right to Exclude Immigrants? (Polity Press: 2018) as well as a trustee of  Bristol Refugee Rights. He is currently working on a project on duties to comply with and rights to resist immigration laws. Past work includes Rousseau and the Social Contract (Routledge 2003) and a variety of papers in both contemporary political philosophy and the history of political thought.

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