We are delighted to welcome Dr Kian Mintz-Woo, new   Lecturer in the UCC Department of Philosophy and also one of our newest ERI PIs.

Prior to joining UCC, Kian was a postdoctoral research associate at the University Center for Human Values and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in the USA. Prior to that appointment , he was at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria as a researcher at the Young Scientists' Summer Program.  

Research Interests

Kian works on moral and normative issues, both fundamental (in moral ontology and metaethics) and applied (in climate ethics and climate economics). Kian has broad interests in climate, some of which cluster around the morally relevant assumptions that go into pricing carbon (i.e. the social cost of carbon), such as discount rates and scope of climate harms; loss & damage (i.e. the impacts of climate beyond our ability to mitigate or adapt); and carbon taxes (i.e. policies internalising the externalities of climate change). A representative piece is forthcoming in Climate Policy arguing that the case for carbon taxes is stronger during the COVID-19 crisis, an argument building on an op-ed that he co-authored with moral philosopher Peter Singer.

Interest in collaboration

“My background is in climate ethics and policy and includes work on many interdisciplinary teams. I would be interested in collaborating with those interested in climate policy, especially relating to carbon pricing and also climate economics, especially related to discounting and cost-benefit analyses. But my interests are very wide, e.g. I am currently co-authoring a piece on the ethics of carbon capture and storage.”

Web profile: http://research.ucc.ie/profiles/A023/kian.mintz-woo@ucc.ie

Personal profile: https://scholar.princeton.edu/mintzwoo