Professor Jeremy Moss
PhD, BA
Professor Moss’s main research interests are in political philosophy and applied philosophy. Current research interests include projects on: climate justice, the ethics of renewable energy as well as the ethical issues associated with climate transitions. He is Director of the Practical Justice Initiative and leads the Climate Justice Research program at լи as part of the Practical Justice Initiative (PJI). Moss has published several books including: Reassessing Egalitarianism, Climate Justice Beyond the State (with Lachlan Umbers), Climate Justice and Non-State Actors (with Lachlan Umbers) and Climate Change and Justice (Cambridge University Press). He is the recipient of the Eureka Prize for Ethics, the Australasia Association of Philosophy Media Prize and several Australian Research Council Grants including most recently, A Just Climate Transition, Ethics, Responsibility and the Carbon Budget, with researchers from Adelaide, ANU and Oxford. He chaired the UNESCO working group on Climate Ethics and Energy Security, and has been a visitor at Oxford, Milan and McGill universities. Recent publications include: Climate Justice Beyond the State (with Lachlan Umbers), J.Moss, R. Kath., ‘Historical Responsibility and the Carbon Budget’, Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol 36/2, 2019 pp. 268-289.‘The Morality of Divestment’, Law and Policy, July 2017; ‘Mining and Morality’, Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol 51 No 3, 2016; ‘Going It Alone: Cities and States for Climate Action’, Ethics, Policy and Environment’, 12/2/18.
Reports:
Social Justice and the Future of Bushfire Insurance
Carbon Majors.
Website:
https://climatejustice.co/
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Recent funded research
J.Moss, A Just Climate Transition, ARC LInkage 2020-3.
J.Moss,Garrett Cullity, Christian Barry and John Broome ARC Discovery, ‘Ethics Responsibility and the Carbon Budget’, 2018-20.
J.Moss, Simon Keller, Iwao Hirose, Garrett Cullity, ARC Discovery, Egalitarian Responses to Climate Change, 2010-14 .
J.Moss, ARC Future Fellowship, “Climate Justice”,
Carbon Majors and Corporate Responsibility for Climate Change
Much of the discussion of the responsibility for addressing climate change centres on the duties of states, and for good reason. But attention is increasingly turning to the contribution that corporations make to climate change and what this ought to mean for how we divide the burdens of responding to climate change. This is particularly the case for major fossil fuel producing corporations or ‘carbon majors’ (CMs) who contribute to climate change in two key ways: by directly producing the fossil fuels that create emissions and by influencing the climate related policies and actions that states and other actors adopt. This project considers the level of responsibility that CMs have for climate harms.The project also assesses the responses that carbon majors ought to make. There are three broad types of action that corporations ought to take: disgorging their profits, lowering their direct carbon emissions and phasing out their fossil fuel related activities.
A Just Climate Transition
Australia's climate transition will have to drastically cut our national emissions. Yet our transition also needs to be fair. This project will develop a social justice framework for the implementation of a zero net emissions climate transition for rural Victoria. This will be the first comprehensive incorporation of social justice framework with detailed mitigation strategies in rural Australia. The research will combine insights from leading Australian and international energy groups and current research to produce valuable inputs into a national just transitions strategy and provide benefits to Industry partners and the sector. The project will significantly contribute to our understanding of a just climate transition.
Research Duration:2020- 2024
Lead Researcher:
Partners/Collaborators ARC Linkage:University of Queensland, Hepburn Wind, Samso Energy Academy (Denmark), Renew, Little Sketches, Central Victorian GHG Alliance
Funding Agency:Australian Research Council
Associated School:Practical Justice Initiative
Research Area:Philosophy
Ethics, Responsibility and the Carbon Budget
The aim of this project will be to provide a rigorous ethical framework for dividing the world’s remaining ‘carbon budget’ (CB). The project will develop a new analysis of how our assumptions concerning risk and harm shape our conception of the CB. It will also provide a new understanding of how future emission rights should be allocated given that countries have emitted vastly different quantities of GHGs in the past. Crucially, the project will analyse how the CB will impact the climate transition plans of countries such as Australia.
This project will address key issues for thinking about the carbon budget including: Is offsetting acceptable, what are the duties of sub state agents (state governments, corporations) and who should bear the costs of transition.The project will also provide innovative solutions to likely obstacles to the implementation of such an account. It will engage with end-users through policy briefs and stakeholder workshops.
Research Duration:2018 – 2023
Lead Researcher:Jeremy Moss
Partners/Collaborators ARC Discovery:Prof Christian Barry (ANU), Prof John Broom (Oxford), Prof Garrett Cullity (Adelaide)
Funding Agency: Australian Research Council
Associated School:Practical Justice Initiative
Research Area:Philosophy
Major Funding
$547,374 ARC funding awarded to develop a social justice framework for the implementation of a zero net emissions climate transitionand Australia’s carbon budget.
https://climatejustice.co/
Recent (selection) media include
Australia
AAP/Canberra Times 18 August, 2022
AAP/SBS News 18 August, 2022
AAP/Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald, Illawarra Mercury + more, July 11, 2022
OpEd Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald 8 July, 2022
ReNew Economy, July 5, 2022
The Conversation, May 26, 2022
ABC Radio National – Science Fiction 10, March 22
ABC Radio Adelaide, Evenings, January 19, 2022
Climate and Capital media December 16, 2021
The Conversation November 12, 2021
ABC Radio National - Late Night Live with Philip Adams, November 3, 2021
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ABC Radio PM, November 2, 2021
The Conversation October 27, 2021
International
National Public Radio USA, ‘Morning edition’ November 1, 2021
LA Times October 30, 2021
Chanel 5 news UK, October 28, 2021
NHK (Japanese National Public TV), December 8, 2021
Recent invitations (selection) include:
- ‘Climate Justice’ – With Senator Mehreen Faruqi, University of Sydney, Sept 13t, 2022.
- “‘Who’s to Blame? Distributing Responsibility for Climate Harms”, ANU Philosophy, March 2022.
- ‘Carbon Justice’, Adelaide Writer’s Festival, March 2022.
- ‘Climate Justice’, ACOSS Climate Change Campaign seminar, July 12th, 2021.
- ‘The Closure of Carbon-Intensive Industries and the Relevance of Choice in a Just Transition’, Individual Responsibility and Climate Injustice, ANU April 22, 2021.
- ‘Challenges of a Just Transition’, Keynote Address, National Greens Party Conference’, July 20th, 2019, Adelaide.
- ‘A Just Transition’, Symposium on the Centenary of the International Labour Organisation’, July 2019, Melbourne (International Labour Organisation, Australian Confederation of Trade Unions).
- ‘The Responsibilities of the “carbon majors” at Strategies, responsibilities and realities for a ‘just’ energy transition workshop Arctic Centre for Sustainable Energy, Arctic University of Norway, June 4, 2019 (Invited).
Australian Research Council College of Experts 2014-6
Australian Research Council Engagement and Impact Panel 2018