| National energy choices play a pivotal role in the health of local communities impacted by energy pollution and the health of communities around the globe impacted by climate change. National energy choices, in the form of policies or governmental decisions, depend not only on empirical facts, but are also a function of a normative framework. This thesis aims to estimate the health benefits of more stringent alternative energy goals and the costs of reducing coal-fired power plant pollution in China (a rapidly developing nation), and to examine whether it is ethical for developed nations to continue burning coal for energy. National energy choices, particularly policies permitting the use of coal for energy, contribute greatly to the growing ethical crisis of climate change: that those nations that are most vulnerable to climate change, are least responsible. Thus, this thesis also aims to assess the vulnerabilities of two nations in the Caribbean -- Haiti and Grenada---who are among a group of nations with negligible emissions of greenhouse gases and who are overlooked in regional assessments of climate change. |
