Research project: Cities, Climate Change, and Collective Responsibility

When nation-states keep on failing to meet their duties of climate change mitigation and individual action is not enough, many have turned to cities as the best hope for the planet. But can cities be responsible for climate change? What kinds of things are cities anyway? Are they the kinds of entities that can be responsible for climate change -- or anything at all? Do city-dwellers have a duty to mitigate climate change just in virtue of where they live? How does living in a city affect our capacities and possibilities of living responsible lives?

In previous philosophical research on climate change and responsibility, the focus has often been either on individuals or states, sometimes on corporations. CCCCR begins from the assumption that cities can be hubs of climate responsibility both in the collective and the individual level. The project draws on research on climate ethics, collective responsibility, philosophy of the city, and interdisciplinary urban studies. It employs both philosophical analysis and expert interviews of researchers and municipal professionals.

CCCCR is based in Tampere University, Finland. It is funded by the KONE Foundation.

Pictures on this website by Lauri Lahikainen unless otherwise noted.