Environmental protection and an equitable international order: ethics after the Earth Summit

Abstract

The UNCED Earth Summit established two new principles of international justice: an equitable international order and protection of the environment. UNCED was a significant symbol, a morality play about environment and economics. Wealth is asymmetrically distributed; approximately one fifth of the world (the G 7 nations) produces and consumes four fifths of goods and services; four fifths (the G 77 nations) get one fifth. This distribution can be interpreted as both an earnings differential and as exploitation. Responses may require justice or charity, producing and sharing. Natural and national resources come into tension with the common heritage of humankind, exemplified in disputes about who owns biodiversity resources. Ethics has to learn planetary home economics.