ABSTRACT
NO: Primary responsibility must rest with states and institutional actors
Rich people do not bear the greatest responsibility for climate change. Primary responsibility falls on states and other institutional actors. While through their economic impact individual rich people may have disproportionately influenced the climate indirectly, they are not effective agents for generating or addressing climate change. States, economic institutions and other international actors are effective agents in the international political arena. The greatest responsibility for climate change falls on them. Individuals do bear responsibility for engaging with these institutions and, to the extent they are able, of changing them. But this is not a responsibility for climate change per se.
