Ethical decisions and the great moral challenge of our time

This chapter deals with the emerging ethical issues confronting public officials developing and implementing policies in response to climate change. It first deals with conventional approaches with their limitations and then discusses the potential to learn from ancient traditions. This chapter examines in ethical decision-making, including the place of public-sector ethics within the broader canvas of sociopolitical governance at all levels - from the local to the global. Public-sector ethics are among the key normative factors affecting the efficiency and effectiveness of societies from the most local of polities to those at the global level. The exercise of public power extends throughout the chain of decision-making, management and administration. The repudiation, emasculation or destruction of sources of information and advice relates to processes of policy rather than the policies themselves. The great moral challenge of climate change is becoming more serious and a greater challenge to mankind's governance as each new research finding is revealed.