Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2022
Libertarianism, Climate Change, and Individual Responsibility
Torpman, OlleAbstract
Much has been written about climate change from an ethical view in general, but less has been written about it from a libertarian point of view in particular. In this paper, I apply the libertarian moral theory to the problem of climate change. I focus on libertarianism's implications for our individual emissions. I argue that (i) even if our individual emissions cause no harm to others, these emissions cross other people's boundaries, (ii) although the boundary-crossings that are due to our 'subsistence emissions' are implicitly consented to by others, there is no such consent to our 'non-subsistence emissions', and (iii) there is no independent justification for these emissions. Although offsetting would provide such a justification, most emitters do not offset their non-subsistence emissions. Therefore, these emissions violate people's rights, which means that they are impermissible according to libertarianism's non-aggression principle.Keywords
Libertarianism; Non-aggression principle; Boundary-crossings; Individual emissions; Offsetting; Individual climate responsibilityPublished in
Res Publica2022, volume: 28, number: 1, pages: 125-148
Publisher: SPRINGER
Authors' information
Torpman, Olle
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Animal Environment and Health
Torpman, Olle
Stockholm University
Torpman, Olle
Institute for Futures Studies
UKÄ Subject classification
Ethics
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-021-09514-3
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/112614