无知可以免责吗?——反思气候变化中的历史排放责任

如何处理温室气体的历史排放问题,是当前应对气候变化的焦点话题。先发国家主张,他们祖先当初的行为是基于"可原谅的无知",既不需要在道德上遭受谴责,也无需为历史排放导致的后果加以补偿。通过分析可看到,以"无知"作为免责的理由是不成立的。在道德责任问题上,无论是从气候科学知识传播来看,还是从排放行为的可控程度来看,抑或从排放者的道德回应来看,"无知"都不是避开道德谴责的恰当理由。在后果责任的问题上,历史上"无知"的排放者也需要承担补偿责任,但这里承担的不是严格责任,而只是有限的补偿责任。如果历史排放者已离世,他们的后代在继承祖先传递的利益之时,也应当承担起对历史排放受害者的补偿义务。质言之,历史上的排放者和他们的后代都不能以"无知"为由逃避责任。

Can Ignorance Be Excused?A Rethinking of the Responsibility for Historical Emissions in Climate Change

How to deal with historical emissions of greenhouse gases is currently a focal topic at the center of the debate on climate change.Historical emitters in developed countries argue that the actions of their ancestors were based on“excusable ignorance”and that they did not need to be criticized in a moral sense,nor is compensation required for the catastrophic consequences of their historical emissions.This paper shows clearly from the analysis below that“ignorance”cannot be taken as a valid reason for exemption from responsibilities.In terms of moral responsibility,“ignorance”is not an appropriate reason to avoid moral condemnation,whether from the perspective of the dissemination of knowledge on climate science,the controllability of emission behavior or the moral response of emitters.In terms of outcome responsibility,the emitters who are historically“ignorant”also need to bear the responsibility for compensation,but what they should bear here is not strict responsibility,but only limited responsibility for compensation.If the historical emitters have passed away,their descendants should also assume the obligation to compensate the victims of historical emissions while inheriting the benefits passed on by their ancestors.In other words,historical emitters and their descendants cannot evade responsibilities for compensations on the grounds of“ignorance”.