One would think that ethicists would have a lot to say about the climate crisis: after all, it threatens fundamental human rights, such as security, health and property. It’s about historical and current responsibility and, last but not least, about justice – internationally, but also between generations.
The German Ethics Council has finally addressed these big questions (more on this here). But what can I say: I personally was very disappointed by his statement on “climate justice” published this week. You have to look for concrete demands on politicians or citizens with a magnifying glass. The state must ensure that it meets its international climate obligations. Products or services that are harmful to the climate can become more expensive. The rich can pay higher carbon prices to finance a green transformation. Companies should also be happy to get involved and the media should please report in a balanced way.
That’s a bit shortened, but essentially that’s it. There’s hardly any mention of what the individual can and should contribute. The state is primarily responsible; one should not expect “moral heroism”. But what if states do not meet their obligations to reduce emissions, as can currently be seen in transport? Would civil disobedience by climate activists be legitimate, perhaps even advisable? Not a word about it, just the banality that protest must adhere to the democratic rules of the game.
All in all, it seems as if the Ethics Council doesn’t want to hurt anyone with its statement. It reads a bit like the final document of a climate conference, in which all interests have to be carefully weighed up, from the petrostate to the South Sea island.
The strength of the Ethics Council would be its political independence. That he doesn’t take any sensitivities into account, but rather dares to take a candid and certainly painful look: Isn’t Friedrich Merz’s private plane long since destined to be scrapped? Can you still go on a long-distance trip every year with a clear conscience or should you leave it alone? How exactly is the historical responsibility of an industrial state like Germany measured? In an interview with the SZ, the physicist Stephan Kruip, who sits on the Ethics Council, said that they didn’t want to write “a fully developed catalog of answers”. A few more concrete answers to the Kantian question “What should I do?” but in my eyes it should have been.
Sorry, this has become a very opinionated column. For a more sober look at climate ethics, I recommend a text by my colleague Marlene Weiß entitled “May I do that?” It will be much more concrete here than with the Ethics Council, I promise!
And maybe you see it all completely differently. Please feel free to write to me at [email protected].