
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 UNSW 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/
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 - 2023
Lead Researcher: Jeremy Moss
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
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 – 2021
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
$547,374 ARC funding awarded to develop a social justice framework for the implementation of a zero net emissions climate transition and Australia’s carbon budget.
https://climatejustice.co/
Australian Research Council College of Experts 2014-6
Australian Research Council Engagement and Impact Panel 2018