Historic Climate Emissions: A Path through Non-Culpable Ignorance and Causation Complications

This essay will discuss three issues in relation to historic greenhouse gas emissions. Firstly it will discuss the motivation for responding to climate change based on assuming a harm avoidance conception of climate justice. Secondly it will explore the exculpatory block of non-culpable ignorance and Dan Butt’s solution to this block through compliance with his counterfactual condition. Although plausible this argument requires bolstering because of the final issue with which this essay will contend; the complexity of the connection between early emissions and the harm they cause or contribute to (causation complications). I will argue there are good reasons to challenge the view that early emissions did not cause harm due to the limited absorptive capacity of the atmosphere and because of their temporal location. I modify Butt’s example to demonstrate that there are good reasons to disregard such factors. Ultimately Butt’s counterfactual condition, combined with a nuanced understanding of the connection between emissions and harm to human interests gives us good reasons to attribute responsibility for such emissions, despite their non-culpable ignorance and despite causation complications.