- Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork
I am a senior lecturer (Associate Professor) at University College Cork (Ireland) and am a Guest Researcher at the Equity and Justice Group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria). I work primarily on moral philosophy, both theoretical and applied to climate policy. Before taking up this lectureship, I did a postdoctorate at Princeton University's Center for Human Values.
I have written for several outlets, such as Project Syndicate (co-authored with Peter Singer, https://prosyn.org/cL6cNDx ) and the Irish RTÉ ( https://www.rte.ie/author/1181942-kian-mintz-woo/ ).
I have also been interviewed for the Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/articles/even-harvard-is-now-teaching-personal-finance-11558171800) and for local newspapers in Ireland ( https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-40356059.html ).
Since the beginning of 2023, I have been advising the Irish Environmental Protection Agency with respect to setting national carbon budgets ( https://www.climatecouncil.ie/aboutthecouncil/carbonbudgetsworkinggroup/ ).
Experience
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2020–presentGuest Researcher, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
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2024–presentSenior Lecturer in Philosophy and Researcher at Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork
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2020–2024Lecturer in Philosophy and Researcher at Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork
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2018–2020Postdoctoral research associate, Princeton University
Education
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2018University of Graz, PhD / Climate Ethics
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2014Oxford University, BPhil
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2011University of Reading, MA / Ethics and Political Theory
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2010University of Amsterdam, MSc / Logic
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2008University of British Columbia, BA
Publications
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2024Justice considerations in climate research, Nature Climate Change
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2023Carbon tax ethics, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change
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2023Collapse, social tipping dynamics, and framing climate change, Politics, Philosophy & Economics
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2022Climate change and the threat to civilization, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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2022The NET Effect: Negative Emissions Technologies and the Need-Efficiency Trade-off, Global Sustainability
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2022Carbon pricing ethics, Philosophy Compass
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2021What Do Climate Change Winners Owe, and to Whom?, Economics and Philosophy
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2021Carbon pricing and COVID-19, Climate Policy
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2021Why and Where to Fund Carbon Capture and Storage, Science and Engineering Ethics
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2021A Philosopher’s Guide to Discounting, Philosophy and Climate Change
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2021Will Carbon Taxes Help Address Climate Change?, Les ateliers de l'éthique/The Ethics Forum
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2020Public Values in the Right Context, Australasian Philosophical Review
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2019Science for loss and damage. Findings and propositions, Loss and Damage from Climate Change
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2019The Social Cost of Carbon: Valuing Inequality, Risk, and Population for Climate Policy, The Monist
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2019Principled utility discounting under risk, Moral Philosophy and Politics
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2019The ethical challenges in the context of climate loss and damage, Loss and Damage from Climate Change
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2018On Parfit’s ontology, Canadian Journal of Philosophy
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2018Security and Distribution, or Should You Care about Merely Possible Losses?, Ethics, Policy and Environment
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2018Two Moral Arguments for a Global Social Cost of Carbon, Ethics, Policy and Environment
Contact Kian for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Research supervision
- Location: Cork, Ireland
- Website
- X (formerly Twitter): @UCCPhilosophy
- Article Feed
- ORCID
- Joined