Collective Responsibility, Democracy, and Climate Crisis

This paper argues that even from the perspective of normative theory the climate crisis is a distinctly political problem and that our first and foremost duty in view of it is to create, protect, and contribute to suitable political institutions that can address the numerous issues in an effective and fair manner. It starts from an analysis of climate change as a particular kind of collective action problem and explores the implications of this understanding for how responsibilities relating to the climate crises are best understood. It first explains why our current understandings of responsibility for climate change leave problematic responsibility gaps (sections II to IV). It then presents arguments that there therefore is a duty to create institutions that coordinate spheres of responsibility and prevent gaps (section V). The second part of this paper argues that these institutions ought to be a) democratic in nature and furthermore b) created and operating in a democratic spirit (sections VI and VII). The main drivers of these arguments are basic principles of justice like the right to political participation, concerns about procedural fairness e.g. in view of reasonable disagreement about different possible responses, and the commitment to ensure a fair hearing for the voices and concerns of marginalised communities. The countervailing concern is that democracy faces considerable challenges in the context of the climate crisis (Section VIII). Short-termism and parochialism are known concerns for democratic theory and clearly an issue here. Furthermore, real-world democratic institutions are vulnerable to the effects of lobbying and misinformation and climate change is area which lends itself particularly well to such strategies. Gas, oil, and coal exporting countries, fossil fuel companies, and other (global) businesses benefitting from the established fossil economy have considerable power to outmanoeuvre any country’s democratic attempts to address climate crises and thus to delay effective climate action. Such actions do not only undermine effective climate action but also democratic decision-making as well as people’s trust and confidence in democratic approaches to crisis. The paper thus doubles down on the normative commitment that the first duty anyone has with regard to the climate crisis is to create, support, and protect suitable democratic institutions that allow for fair and effective responses (Section IX).