Principle-Based Ethics and the Clean Development Mechanism

Search for common values can go a long way resolving international political and social differences, and represents an area where ethical evaluation can offer an input to international legislation. This paper argues that a principle-based, normative approach should be applied to evaluation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects and the goal of sustainable development (SD). Primafacie ethical principles to promote weil-being, dignity and justice can be defined and supported from international agreements on sustainable developments. To promote coherency, these principles should then be specifled according to particular CDM-projects, to produce a set of norms that covers: 1) the different dimension to sustainable development, 2) the distribution of costs and benefits across time and place, and 3) consequences for different affected parties, including future generations and the environment