Ethics, Energy & the Future: Technology for a Sustainable Society

Equality in the Greenhouse?
Simon Caney, University of Oxford

Is No One Responsible for Global Environmental Tragedy? Climate Change as a Challenge to Our Ethical Concepts
Stephen Gardiner, University of Washington

The Intergenerational Dimension of Climate Justice
Axel Gosseries, University of Louvain

Values and Design
Jeroen van den Hoven, 3TU Centre for Ethics and Technology

Our Solar Future on an Open Source Platform
Andrew Light, George Mason University & Center for American Progress

Human Rights, Climate Change, and the Trillionth Ton
Henry Shue, University of Oxford

Climate change is one of the most urgent problems the world is currently facing. It is commonly agreed that the world’s energy consumption lies at the heart of the problem. In order to meet the challenges of a sustainable lifestyle, multidisciplinary decisions with regard to energy provision and energy-consumption need to be made. This conference focuses on the ethical, political and economic issues of such solutions and aims at bringing together researchers from engineering sciences, philosophy and social sciences.

New energy technologies and policies raise various ethical and societal issues. Amongst them are questions relating to the just distribution of burden and benefits, public concerns and acceptance of various energy technologies, the risks and uncertainties associated with different technical options, and the appropriate criteria for assessing various technologies and policies. These aspects can be divided into four fields of concern. 

1) Energy technologies and their ethical issues
This track focuses on the ethical considerations relevant to technologies that are proposed to deal with the problem of climate change. Discussions about energy systems, e.g. nuclear power, biofuel, hydrogen, wind and solar energy as well as technological solutions for climate change such as Carbon Capture and Storage and geoengineering are welcomed.

2) General ethical issues of sustainability and energy
This track covers general ethical issues of sustainability and energy, including questions of energy consumption, distribution and emissions entitlements. It also covers more fundamental philosophical issues such as what we owe future generations, who bears the responsibility for climate change and what the relevant moral principles are when determining long-term policies.

3) Ethics, energy policy and political philosophy
This track includes topics regarding the ethical evaluation of energy policies, such as those which provide ‘band aid’ solutions rather than long-term solutions. Other relevant issues might include the role of compensation/ education in the implementation of energy policies or the integration of philosophical frameworks (e.g. distributive justice) in political decision making.

4) Ethics and economics of climate change and energy technologies
This track welcomes papers which focus on ethical considerations in discussing economic aspects of environmental decision making. Contributions on cost-benefit analysis, the discount rate, emissions trading, risk and uncertainty in the case of future generations as well as other topics that deal with ethics and economics of energy are welcomed.

We invite you to contribute a paper in any of these four areas.  Abstracts should be between 500 and 1000 words and should be sent to the contact address before February 15th, 2010. 

You can find here a draft (2) program. The final program will be posted on the website in June. Prog_-_Energy_Ethcis_and_the_Future_-_Delft_-_June_2010_-_draft_3_website_.doc

The conference is co-organized by Rosemary Lowry, Andreas Spahn and Behnam Taebi. For inquiries you can contact one of the organizers or send us an e-mail at:

You can register for this conference on http://quium.org/sustainability/. Please fill out your details, submit them and subsequently pay by debit/credit card or through Paypal. The early registration fee (pay before May 15th) for the conference is 200 Euro including the conference dinner. After May 15th the fee will be increased to 250 Euro.

The conference takes place in the faculty of TPM in the campus of Delft University of Technology. TPM is building number 31 in the campus. You can find a map here.

Delft can easily be reached from the International Schiphol Airport by train. You can find a train schedule here. 

The conference will be held at the campus of TU Delft. There are a couple of hotels adjacent to the conference location. You can find a list of hotels here. Conference participants get a disount in Hotel Hampshire.

Hampshire Hotel Delft Centre
Koepoortplaats 3
2612 RR, Delft
Tel: +31-15-2122125
http://www.hoteldelftcentre.nl/

Hotel de Ark B.V.
Koornmarkt 65
2611 EC DELFT
Tel: +31-15-2157999
Fax: +31-15-2144997

http://www.deark.nl

Hotel Johannes Vermeer
Molslaan 18-22
2611 RM DELFT
Tel: +31-15- 212 64 66
Fax: +31-15- 213 48 35

http://www.hotelvermeer.nl/

Hotel Juliana
Maerten Trompstraat 33
2628 RC DELFT
Tel: +31-15-2567612
Fax: +31-15-2565707

http://www.hoteljuliana.nl/