Taking Responsibility for Climate Change / Progress in Mathematics (PDF)

"By interweaving philosophical argument with real-world examples, Säde Hormio makes an important contribution to debates about collective responsibility for climate change."
-Stephanie Collins, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Monash University, Australia

This book proposes that it is not only states and international bodies that have a responsibility to take action toward mitigating climate change. Other collective agents, such as corporations, need to also come onboard. Additionally, the book argues that climate change is not solely a problem for collective agents, but also for individuals, as they are members of collectives and groups of several kinds. Therefore, framing climate change responsibility exclusively from either the collective or the individual perspective leaves out something crucial: how we all are influenced by the collectives we belong to and how, in turn, collectives are influenced by individuals.

The focus of the book is on areas of climate change responsibility that are often left out of the picture or get too little attention in climate ethics, such as carbon inequality within countries. But why should any theoretical arguments about normative issues matter when we have a real-life climate crisis on our hands? Säde Hormio argues that ethical arguments have an important role in setting climate policy: they can highlight what values are at stake and help ground normative arguments in public deliberations.

Säde Hormio is an Academy Research Fellow in Practical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki. She is also affiliated with the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm. Her research focuses on shared and collective responsibility.