Abstract
The emission of so-called greenhouse gases have caused, and will cause, climate change with highly unequal consequences for people depending on, inter alia, where and when they live. We assume the need for a global cap on emissions as a matter of intergenerational justice and argue for the plausibility of an equal per capita distribution of the benefits from emission generating activities over the whole lifespan of individuals. We investigate how past emissions ought to be taken into account in distributing emission rights among currently living people. We distinguish three objections against taking into account historical and past emissions (reflecting the non-identity problem, the problem of limited knowledge of those who caused the emissions and the problem of currently living people being in no position to have hindered these emissions). We sketch two ways of taking into account some of the consequences of historical and past emissions that are compatible with normative individualism and a third way that relies on considering states as transgenerational entities that can be considered liable inter-temporally.
Published Version
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