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54 I.Wallimann-Helmeret al.
between outcome responsibility and remedial responsibility: outcome responsibil-
ity denotes responsibility for bringing about a certain state of affairs and remedial
responsibilitydenotes responsibility toevenoutharm(HartandHonoré2002;Hon-
oré 2010;Miller 2007).Whilst thefirst kind of responsibility is backward-looking
the second looks forward. Inprinciple, both these conceptionsof responsibility are
independent. Irrespectiveofwhether or not someonebrought about a certainharm,
shecanberesponsible to(help) remedythatharm.Webelievethatseeingsomebody
drowningputsusunderduty tohelp, irrespectiveofwhetherweare responsible for
that person drowning. By contrast, being outcome responsible for a certain harm
does not always imply responsibility to (help) remedy this harm. Somebodywho
trips and falls therebypushing another person in front of himmight be responsible
in termsofoutcomebutnotnecessarily in termsofremedy. If theonepushingcould
not avoid trippingand tripping is not due to a fault of her own then this is bad luck
forbothpersons involvedbutnoone isusually seenunderduty for remedy.
In order to legitimately claima connection betweenoutcome responsibility and
remedial responsibility, somekindofnormativelyrelevant tiebetweenthe twomust
beestablished.Miller (2007) suggestsmoral failure, responsibility for theoutcome
andmere causal contribution as legitimate reasons for assigning remedial respon-
sibilities based on outcome responsibility. If this kind of connection is or can be
established, thenweare in the realmofcompensatory justice,because in thiscase it
is theassignmentof responsibility foracertainstateofaffairs that justifies remedial
responsibility.Generallyspeaking,themostobviouswaytodifferentiateresponsibil-
ities incaseofharmlikeclimateL&Dwouldbetoassignresponsibilitiesforremedy
inproportiontothecontributiontotheharm,likelevelsofgreenhousegasemissions.
IncaseofL&D, the reasons linkingoutcomeresponsibility to remedial responsibil-
itywould amount towrongful emitting, non-wrongful but significant contribution
to theharm,orcausal contribution.Whicheverof these three reasons isoperative in
justifyingaconnectionbetweenoutcomeresponsibilityandremedial responsibility,
itoperateswithin theframingofcompensatory justice.Thosebringingaboutaharm
are assigned responsibilities tomakewhole again thosewhomwere impacted by
theirbehaviour.
The potential reasons for linking outcome responsibilitywith remedial respon-
sibilitymentioned above are backward-looking, as is compensatory justice.When
aharmhasmaterialised, considerations of compensatory justice aimat identifying
thoseresponsiblefor theharminorder toassignremedial responsibilities.However,
in lightofourdiscussionsucha (purely)backward-lookingassignmentof remedial
responsibilitiesmaynotbe fully appropriate for two reasons.First, in lightofpara-
graph 52 of decision 1/CP.21 it may become politically unfeasible since it would
amount to compensation and liability. Thismeans that a “responsibility vacuum”
mightemergewhen, forpolitical reasons,duty-bearersdonot stepup to their reme-
dial responsibilities. Furthermore, only a portion of experienced L&Dwould be
coveredwereremedial responsibility tobebasedonoutcomeresponsibilityonly.As
shownbefore, natural climate variability aswell as socio-economic factors on the
groundcontribute tomuchof theL&Daswell.
Loss and Damage from Climate Change
Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Title
- Loss and Damage from Climate Change
- Subtitle
- Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Authors
- Reinhard Mechler
- Laurens M. Bouwer
- Thomas Schinko
- Swenja Surminski
- JoAnne Linnerooth-Bayer
- Publisher
- Springer Open
- Date
- 2019
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-319-72026-5
- Size
- 16.0 x 24.0 cm
- Pages
- 580
- Keywords
- Environment, Climate change, Environmental law, Environmental policy, Risk management
- Categories
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Umwelt und Klima