Introduction

People living can be considered as indirect victims of injustices committed against other people in the past. Owing to the consequences of these past injustices, the indirect victims suffer harm. The non-identity problem can also threaten to undermine indirect victims’ claims to an apology or to compensation for the consequences of historical injustice committed against other people in the past. For the sake of the argument let assume that an historical injustice has been superseded and that the past wrong has no identifiable harmful effects on living or people. Intergenerational justice in both time dimensions – namely what living people owe to people and how to interpret the normative significance of what past people did – is of central importance in providing an interpretation of what ought to be done in responding to climate change. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.