Individual Duties Regarding Global Environmental Problems – The Example of Climate Change

There now is a broad theoretical discourse regarding individual duties in which arguments for different kinds of duties as well as actions have been developed. The present paper aims at systematizing this discussion and offers an independent argument that there are duties beyond compliance with and promotion of institutions. The paper starts with some clarifications regarding duties to promote. Subsequently, the main section of the paper addresses the question whether individuals ought to reduce GHG emissions in their responsibility even if these do not contribute to promoting institutions via their communicative value. We first critically discuss objections against such a duty. In a second step, we justify the duty by further developing our so called fair share argument. Subsequently, we clarify the substance of these ‘fair share duties’ and show how they relate to duties to promote. In conclusion, we argue that there are three kinds of complementary, equally important duties: duties to comply with institutions, duties to promote institutions and individual behavioral duties not to exceed one’s fair share of emissions entitlements. The final section locates this tripartite distinction of duties in a framework of different levels of non-ideality