2025/09/16 by Mathieu Guigourez · 2 voices
Environmental Science · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Climate Change and Geoengineering #Economic Theory and Institutions #Climate Change Policy and Economics
paper · doi:10.1080/1350178x.2025.2555821
openalex publication_date 2025/09/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/10
Individual actions – and individual responsibility – regarding climate-related issues are often overlooked because they have a negligible impact at the global scale. Yet, despite having little to no impact, some people commit themselves to reducing their carbon footprint; that is, they are willingly choosing to adapt their consumption despite having no tangible impact on the issue they are tackling. Our aim is to question the permeability of economic rationality with moral (individual) responsibility at stake in climate-related issues. We provide an account of a possible bridge between deontological obligations and utility-maximisation in three different frameworks, namely Senian commitment, Kantian economics and choice under unresolved valuations conflicts. This analysis of different frameworks incorporating deontological motives in Rational Choice Theory analytically grounds individual commitments without relying on political enforcement or monetary incentives.