Responsibility as Members

How should we respond to the urgent need to mitigate climate change when collective solutions are for the most part still lacking or insufficient? Instead of focusing on individuals as voters or consumers, this chapter highlights responsibility qua members of organised collectives, such as companies and associations. We should not forget this causally potent and individually salient responsibility, as mediated responsibility might in many cases be our best chance of making an impact when it comes to climate change mitigation. I argued in the previous chapter that given the scale and urgency of climate change, all collective agents have a pro tanto reason to reduce their emissions. Climate change cannot be solved without collective entities stepping up to meet their responsibilities, and collective entities will not do so unless enough of their members push for it, or another collective entity makes them comply through legislation, for example. Not only an all-hands-on-deck approach, we thus also need action within various collective agents. Collective agents are not pre-destined machines, but micro-societies in which members can often make a difference. Members should assess their role within organised collectives to see if and where they can push the collective to adopt policies and procedures that reduce net carbon emissions to optimal levels or otherwise promote mitigation action. The chapter also discusses employee activism.