CHR-NI-2016-0001 Statement of Resource Person, Professor Henry Shue 6 November 2018
Republic of the Philippines Commission on Human Rights
CHR-NI-2016-0001 In Re: National inquiry on the impact of climate change
on the human rights of the Filipino People
Statement of Resource Person, Henry Shue
1) Preliminary Matters
1.1 My name is Henry Shue. I was awarded a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy on 16
October 1970 by Princeton University.
1.2 I am a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Studies of the
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford; Professor
Emeritus of International Relations, University of Oxford; and Senior Research
Fellow Emeritus, Merton College, University of Oxford. I have previously
served on the faculties of the University of North Carolina, Wellesley College, the
University of Maryland, and Cornell University. A copy of my current
Curriculum Vitae is attached to this statement.
1.3 My relevant research publications include Basic Rights (Princeton University
Press, 1980; 2nd edition, 1996); Climate Justice: Vulnerability and Protection
(Oxford University Press, 2014); 12 articles on moral and political issues
concerning climate change since 2014, including ‘Responsible for What? Carbon
producer CO2 contributions and the energy transition”, Climatic Change, 144
(2017): 4, 591-596, on which I shall draw here today; and Climate Justice:
Integrating Economics and Philosophy, co-edited with Ravi Kanbur (Oxford
University Press, 2018). Details are on my attached Curriculum Vitae.
1.4 I was invited to be a resource person by Ms. Desiree Llanos Dee, Climate
Justice Campaigner at Greenpeace Southeast Asia-Philippines, one of the
petitioners in this national inquiry, by a letter of 23 February 2018. I immediately
accepted as the principles at the foundation of this petition have been at the centre
of my research for a quarter of a century. I regret that duties in my home state of
Virginia in connection with the US Congressional election on 6 November 2018
prevent me from appearing in person as I had intended and am grateful for your
willingness to allow me to participate by means of Skype. I avoid using Power
Point because it allows the qualifications, subtleties, and careful details of the
arguments to drop out. I will be delighted to answer any questions.
1.5 In the following I concentrate on a single moral responsibility, the urgent
responsibility to stop inflicting harm in violation of basic rights. I leave aside
here many further responsibilities.
2) Substantive Matters
2.1 Moral wrong, not natural tragedy
One of the most authoritative assessments of the adequacy of the climate measures
pledged by individual countries in Paris 2015 - the Nationally Determined
Contributions [NDCs] - finds that only seven countries have committed themselves
to actions that fulfill their national responsibilities. One of those special seven
countries that is doing as much as it can reasonably be expected to do is the
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