Discussions of Climate Justice have traditionally looked at which countries should bear the costs of combating the adverse effects of climate change, by discussing just methods of distributing the benefits and burdens associated with it. Noticeably however, a recent body of literature has explored whether it is necessary to consider the responsibility of alternate global actors beyond nation states, namely economic corporations. Large companies are represented at key climate negotiations such as the United Nations Conference of Parties, and the solutions that emerge from these discussions are often embedded within market mechanisms, with the private sector hailed as a key driver of global environment reform. Whilst many private sector actors do indeed have the available resources to implement the scale of change required, it is almost exclusively on a voluntary basis.
In this paper I will argue that in ‘weak states’, those in which the central government is unwilling or unable to provide basic public goods, it is appropriate that Multinational Oil Companies operating within the country be assigned responsibility to contribute to the costs of climate change. In doing so I will frame climate change as a matter of global justice, and using David Millers (2007) ‘Connection Theory’ of Remedial Responsibility, argue that they are morally responsible for bringing about the injustice, and on account of their capacity to make a substantial contribution to the problems faced by Nigeria, it is just that they do so.
