Climate change and sustainable welfare - the centrality of human needs

Here’s a short summary of the article “Climate Change and Sustainable Welfare: The Centrality of Human Needs” by Ian Gough:

🔑 Key Points:

• Climate change poses a global and long-term threat to human well-being.

• Human needs theory is proposed as a better framework than preference satisfaction or happiness for addressing sustainability and justice.

• Basic human needs (like health and autonomy) are:

  • Universal

  • Objective

  • Non-substitutable

  • Satiable (have thresholds)

• Intermediate needs (e.g., food, shelter, education) vary by culture but are essential to meet basic needs.

• Sustainability requires meeting current needs without harming future generations’ ability to meet theirs.

• Ethical implications: Human needs provide a foundation for rights, justice, and moral obligations across time and space.

• Policy implications: Calls for participatory, evidence-based approaches and institutions that prioritize need satisfaction over consumer preferences.

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