Climate Change and Accountability, Part Two: Big Producers of Polluting Products
Hope & Justice Series Post #4.0 — Putting Guilt and Accountability Where it Belongs
Who Is Accountable?
If there is a wrong that must be made right, if an injustice has occurred, calling for us to do the three actions of justice — stop the bad stuff, set wrong right, and make things better — we need to know who is accountable.
This is part of the creation of the hope-justice virtuous circle. We need to know who is accountable for the bad stuff so we can stop it. Those accountable should stop or be stopped from doing the bad stuff, and, if appropriate, help to set wrong right and make things better.
Because justice is what we hope for, when the three actions of justice are being achieved we create hope, a hope that encourages us to seek more justice. Accountability and justice and hope can join together to move us forward as collectively we become justice-seekers, hope-makers, and beauty-creators.
So who is accountable for climate change? This is what we will be discussing in a 4-part Subseries on who is really accountable, beginning with this post.
Society at large needs to know, and the Climate Movement and Climate Action Supporters especially need to know for us to play our part in overcoming climate change by creating a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything, making our future come faster and our world more beautiful.
The Real Culprits
Ever since climate began to be considered a serious problem decades ago discussions of climate accountability have been focused primarily on nations and individuals and their emissions, and this is still the case. This can obscure and even hide the real culprits: the Big Producers of polluting products.
Focusing on nations is appropriate as I will explain in post #4.2, the last post in this Subseries, forthcoming.
But the focus on individuals and their emissions has always been misguided at best, a scam at worst, as I discussed earlier.
Here are the facts.
Historically, 90 Big Producers are accountable for nearly two-thirds of fossil fuel climate pollution (CO2 and CH4 or methane). They are accountable for nearly half of the rise in temperature.
Investor-owned corporate Big Producers are accountable for 31% of CO2/CH4 pollution since 1854.
Since the 2015 Paris Agreement 57 Big Producers have been accountable for 70% of CO2/CH4 emissions.1
In 2023, 36 Big Producers are accountable for half of all CO2/CH4 emissions.
Historically coal-burning power plants around the world have been the largest source of climate pollution — and still are today.
In other words, no Big Producers, no climate crisis. No kairos-climate-time.
Without the Big Producers of Polluting Products climate change would not be something to overcome with time running short.
As these facts clearly show, the focus on individuals and their emissions was always misplaced.
But now because of the climate clock we are on, because we are in kairos-climate-time where overcoming climate change requires unprecedented speed and scale, we are well past time to fall for the scapegoating of individuals. The guilt-tripping of individuals about their emissions is not just bad for the individual. It is also part of the problem, for two basic reasons.
First, as I said in an earlier post on individuals and climate pollution, it can lead to inaction and even opposition, stealing energy and hope that could be channeled into the Climate Movement. Individuals aren’t accountable, but we are responsible for overcoming climate change together. We can’t afford this inaction outcome.
But second, it deflects from the Big Producers of Polluting Products (BPs) who are really accountable. It’s the climate accountability sleight of hand par excellence. Remember, it was a Big Producer (or a BP) who put the “Carbon Footprint” on the map. Guilt-tripping individuals for their emissions is a great way for Big Producers to keep producing and selling the products that have created the climate crisis.
When it comes to climate accountability, an individual’s emissions don’t have a damn thing to do with it.
But if an individual is part of a Big Producer, especially if they are a part of making important decisions, or if they are part of the government and have the power to reign in the Big Producers, then they share in the accountability.
Targeting for Justice
Determining who is accountable shows us who we need to target to achieve each of the three actions of justice.
Stopping Bad Stuff — This is all about the present, the current moment in medias res. We can’t stop the bad stuff that has already happened. If we want to change the trajectory of the bad stuff in the future, we must do so in the present. In other words, the only time we can act to create justice is in the present. That means when it comes to stopping bad stuff our focus is on the Big Producers of Polluting Products today, in now-time, in our-time, in kairos-climate-time.
Setting Wrong Right — Because harmful climate pollution builds upon the emissions of the past, setting wrong right in the present for the future means holding the Big Producers of Polluting Products accountable for their past contributions that have created the climate problem of today and tomorrow and all of our children’s tomorrows.
Making Things Better — Today’s children and subsequent generations are due a better future. Those accountable for past emissions and current pollution must make amends in a way that overcomes climate change by creating a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything. The future we bequeath is a reflection of who we are.
Of course, while the Big Producers of Polluting Products are accountable, as I discussed previously, all of us are responsible for justice, for fulfilling the Better Future Covenant, for creating the brighter, more hopeful future we envision.
Accountability, Justice & Hope Together
When we have clarity on who is really accountable, then we know whose behavior and which systems need changing. Accountability leading to justice creates hope, for a just world is what we hope for. When we create these three together — accountability, justice, and hope — then we are on the road to climate freedom and a just, prosperous sustainability. Join us!
If you are new here, check out our Intro Series, as well as other posts in this Hope & Justice Series. If you like this post, please “like,” comment, and share. And thanks for all you’re doing.
The 2024 Carbon Majors report: “In the seven years after the Paris Agreement was adopted at the end of 2015, 251 GtCO2e of emissions are linked to the 117 extant entities in the database, the CO2 portion of which is over 88% of total fossil fuel and cement emissions in this time. 80% of these global emissions from 2016 through 2022 can be traced to just 57 corporate and state producing entities.” So, this 80% is of the 88%, not the total. It is 70% of the total.