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Human Well‐Being and Climate Change Mitigation

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Human Well‐Being and Climate Change Mitigation Advanced Review Human well-being and climate change mitigation William F. Lamb 1* and Julia K. Steinberger 2 Edited by Louis Lebel, Domain Editor, and Mike Hulme, Editor-in-Chief Climate change mitigation research is fundamentally motivated by the preserva- tion of human lives and the environmental conditions which enable them. How- ever, the field has to date rather superficial in its appreciation of theoretical claims in well-being thought, with deep implications for the framing of mitigation priori- ties, policies, and research. Major strands of well-being thought are hedonic well- being—typically referred to as happiness or subjective well-being—and eudaimo- nic well-being, which includes theories of human needs, capabilities, and multidi- mensional poverty. Aspects of each can be found in political and procedural accounts such as the Sustainable Development Goals. Situating these concepts within the challenges of addressing climate change, the choice of approach is highly consequential for: (1) understanding inter- and intra-generational equity; (2) defining appropriate mitigation strategies; and (3) conceptualizing the socio- technical provisioning systems that convert biophysical resources into well-being outcomes. Eudaimonic approaches emphasize the importance of consumption thresholds, beyond which dimensions of well-being become satiated. Related strands of well-being and mitigation research suggest constraining consumption to within minimum and maximum consumption levels, inviting normative discus- sions on the social benefits, climate impacts, and political challenges associated with a given form of provisioning. The question of how current socio-technical provisioning systems can be shifted towards low-carbon, well-being enhancing forms constitutes a new frontier in mitigation research, involving not just techno- logical change and economic incentives, but wide-ranging social, institutional, and cultural shifts. © 2017 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. How to cite this article: WIREs Clim Change 2017, 8:e485. doi: 10.1002/wcc.485 INTRODUCTION enable them, climate change mitigation research can benefit greatly from a more rigorous understanding fi sa eld motivated by the preservation of human and application of human well-being. Not least, a Alives and the environmental conditions which rigorous theory of well-being ought to be crucial to our understanding of how to reconcile a complete * decarbonization of production processes with justice, Correspondence to: [email protected] — 1 equity, and poverty alleviation widely accepted Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate 1 Change (MCC), Berlin, Germany requirements of a low-carbon transformation. Much of the recent motivation behind well- 2Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environ- ment, University of Leeds & ESRC Centre for Climate Change being research stems from a dissatisfaction with the Economics and Policy, Leeds, UK widespread use of gross domestic product (GDP) as a Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of inter- measure of social progress (and the utility theory it is est for this article. founded upon), the limitations of which are by now Volume 8, November/December 2017 1of16 © 2017 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Advanced Review wires.wiley.com/climatechange – widely known.2 However, questions of well-being have allows,3 5 but it serves to demonstrate that alternative occupied intellectuals for far longer than the existence starting points can lead to very different practical out- of modern economic accounting, and they will con- comes in the assessment of well-being and its implica- tinue to be a highly contested area of debate. Since the tions for climate change mitigation. elaboration of well-being concepts will heavily influ- ence one’s framing of climate change mitigation— Hedonic Well-Being including the value-based choices that inform appro- Hedonic well-being arises from the work of Epicurus priate policies and pathways—it is important to exam- (and later classical liberalists Mill and Bentham) in ine the theoretical claims underlying typical establishing a subjective state account of human moti- approaches. This is our first point in this paper, vation.6 In this mental account of well-being, the demonstrated by contrasting theories of hedonic and good life is a matter of balancing pleasure over pain, eudaimonic well-being, as well as the recently con- enjoying life, and feeling good.7 Hedonic well-being ceived sustainable development goals (SDGs). has gained influence in the field of psychology as the A second emerging issue in well-being and cli- basis for assessments of ‘subjective well-being’: mate change mitigation research is how to conceptu- including happiness assessments, life satisfaction, and alize and quantify the benefits that society derives the presence of positive/negative mood.8 It is now from biophysical resource use. This is a complex and supported by standardized questions in large-scale normative issue, for such benefits may be specificto data surveys, such as the World Values Survey, World individuals and communities, and are indirectly Happiness Report and the UK-based National Labour – linked to biophysical resources through supply Force Survey.9 11 A typical question in these surveys chains, physical infrastructures, and different forms is ‘All things considered, how satisfied are you with of social provisioning. Research in functional special- your life as a whole these days? Please give a score of isms around energy access, energy services, and food 0 to 10 where 0 means extremely dissatisfied and provisioning are filling the gaps in this chain of the 10 means extremely satisfied.’12 biophysical to the social. Again, how this problem is Hedonic accounts make several implicit theoreti- approached is distinctly driven by the choice of well- cal claims. First, by relying upon self-assessments, they being theory, suggesting that it deserves far greater claim that individuals are best placed to understand attention within the mitigation literature. However, and articulate their own desires; accordingly, hedonic doing so would allow for a systematic analysis of well-being leans towards a postmodern, relativistic view provisioning systems, focusing on their benefits to of human motivation, rejecting a shared set of universal society, impacts on the global carbon budget and values or norms.8 Second, hedonic well-being suggests potentials for deep decarbonization. that a good society is built upon individuals maximiz- ing their own happiness, a position most closely associ- ’ 7 THEORIES OF WELL-BEING ated with Bentham s utilitarianism. Critics of the approach argue that subjective self-assessments often ‘Human well-being’ is complex and contested. It is bear little relation to underlying levels of material depri- often used interchangeably with ‘happiness,’‘human vation (a phenomenon widely known as adaptive pre- development,’‘living standards,’‘quality of life’ or ferences), while appeals to hedonism generally have ‘welfare,’ and has grown to become a catch-all term little to say about social aspects of well-being, such as for measuring and promoting good lives and a good an active political life, notions of justice, or a sense of society. Researchers in the climate change field have inter-generational citizenship.3,6,13,14 tended to work with established frameworks, such as Since hedonic well-being tends to measure over- the capabilities concept [typically equated with the arching mental outcomes, psychological, economic Human Development Index (HDI)] or politically and sociological research has delved into question of endorsed measures such as the Millennium Develop- the underlying causes, or determinants, of happiness ment Goals (MDGs) or the SDGs. To engage in the or life satisfaction. Identifying these determinants is debate as to how well-being can be operationalized, vital for both policy relevance and more applied we draw upon two broad schools of thought: hedonic social or environmental science research. However, and eudaimonic well-being. We then contrast them the range of different factors emphasized in each with the SDG framework, which is not a carefully phi- social science discipline, alongside methodological losophized set of objectives, but an approach that will issues, make consensus on the determinants of be more familiar to some readers. This overview is not hedonic well-being elusive. Psychological research intended to be a comprehensive categorization of well- tends to prioritize mental, biological and cognitive being, which is far more nuanced than the space here determinants,15 economic research emphasizes 2of16 © 2017 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Volume 8, November/December 2017 WIREs Climate Change Human well-being and climate change mitigation economic factors, such as income, consumption, and Sen27,28 and Nussbaum,25,26 this cross-cultural con- employment,16 whereas sociological research consid- sensus emerges from identifying a set of fundamental ers the role of social (as well as economic) institu- ‘capabilities’ that allow one to live as they would tions, including healthcare provision, social capital, choose, but to refrain from
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