Climate Change and Cosmopolitan Responsibilities

The principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDRRC) reveals the contested nature of responsibility not just amongst American presidents but more widely in the international legal community. The principle is intended to reconcile historical emissions with a just or equitable burden sharing in response to climate change by placing a heavier burden on developed countries than developing ones to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Yet emphasis on understanding responsibility based on causal inferences of historical blame or current emission levels has prevented states, including powerful ones like the United States, from conceiving their responsibility in proactive terms. Although climate change is addressed by non-state political communities and activist groups, these alternative communities struggle to bring to bear a holistic approach towards the phenomena without having sufficient political, economic and scientific resources. In addition, their power to make change relies in many ways on the power and sovereignty of states. As a result, we suggest that the responsibility for proactively engaging with the challenges of a changing climate must begin with states. We look to progress in international law and international organizations, the realm of states, to suggest that states can and do fulfil responsibilities in regards to climate change.