Normative justifications for sustainability: Ethics of responsibility
The concept of responsibility originally stems from Roman jurisprudence and refers to answering or justifying one's own actions in front of a court in the sense of responding to a judicial accusation: people must justify their actions to this court and legitimise them before a higher authority, which ultimately decides on the sentence. This origin of the term already makes it clear that responsibility is to be understood as at least a four-digit relational concept and essentially contains the element of justification or accountability. According to widespread opinion, the concept of responsibility refers to the duty ascribed to a subject of responsibility towards the object of responsibility on the basis of a normative claim, which in turn can be demanded by an authority of responsibility.
Depending on how these relations are specifically defined in terms of substance or content, current generations may be responsible for the continued existence of humanity, current generations for the entirety of living nature in the present and future, or others. Depending on their content, these responsibilities then give rise to various duties to protect, which can also be used as a normative justification for the concept of sustainability.
Hans Jonas, for example, is a prominent proponent of an ethical approach to responsibility.
For more information on Jonas' ethics of responsibility, see:
Jonas, H. (1984): The Imperative of Responsibility. In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jonas, H. (2016): Prinzip Verantwortung – Zur Grundlegung einer Zukunftsethik. In: Krebs, A. (ed.): Naturethik. Grundtexte der gegenwärtigen tier- und ökoethischen Diskussion. 8. ed. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 165–181. (German)
Werner, M. H. (2016): Hans Jonas‘ Prinzip Verantwortung. In: Düwell, M. / Steigleder, K. (ed.): Bioethik. Eine Einführung. 4. ed. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 41–56. (German)
For the justification of a concept of sustainability based on Hans Jonas' ethics of responsibility, see:
Schoop, J. F. (2022): Conditions for an Ethically Responsible and Sustainable Bioeconomy Based on Hans Jonas’ Ethics of Responsibility. In: Lanzerath, D. / Schurr, U. / Pinsdorf, C. / Stake, M. (ed.) Bioeconomy and Sustainability. Cham: Springer, 281–305.
For general information on ethics of responsibility, see for instance:
Heidbrink, L. / Langbehn, C. / Loh, J. (ed.): Handbuch Verantwortung. Reihe Springer Reference Sozialwissenschaften. Wiesbaden: Springer. (German)
Ropohl, G. (1993): Neue Wege, die Technik zu verantworten. In: Ropohl, G. / Lenk, Hans (eds.): Technik und Ethik. 2. Revised and expanded ed. Stuttgart: Reclam, 149–176. (German)