MODULE 4: Climate Justice (2)

AGENDA

1. Peter Singer recap
2. Climate Tracker assessment of NDCs under Paris Agreement
3. Preview: Bjorn Lomborg 

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Peter Singer recap

What should different nations do to prevent further climate change? What is each nation's "fair share" of the effort needed to keep temperature rise below 1.5 or 2 deg C?

(1) Historical principle: present reductions should be proportional to past emissions.  

(2) Time slice approaches: Equal shares

Problem: unequal per capita emissions

 

Solution: equal shares

• forget the past
• each person has a right to the same emissions
• this allowance should be consistent with keeping temperature rise below 2 deg C. 
• the allowance might be 2 tons CO2 per person
• each country's fair share of emissions = 2.3 tons X country's population
• Each country's fair share of effort to reduce based on their "overage" or "underage"

Historical vs. equal share

• Time-slice and historical: US has to do a lot
• Time-slice: China has to do just as much as US
• Historical: China has to do less than US

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(3) Time-slice: roughly equal shares

• subsistence emissions -- methane from rice paddies, heating fuel in Greenland
• development emissions -- costs of rising from poverty
• luxury emissions -- costs of big car, freezing cold movie theaters, flying to Europe

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How to make the reductions occur

Assume "equal shares" for simplicity

Garret Hardin--"mutual coercion mutually agreed upon"

Cap and trade

1. Every nation issued is permits based on population
2. Must have permits to emit GHG
3. "Overage" countries will have to buy permits from "underage" countries
4. Overage countries will have motivation to mitigate (so they don't have to buy so many permits)
5. Underage countries will have motivation to stay low but have money to develop
6. Cap and trade is a reality within countries/regions: European Union Emissions Trading System ; also California, China, etc.

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Climate Tracker assessment of country NDCs under Paris Agreement

Climate tracker: what does fair share mean?

Responsibility: historical

Equality: equal shares

Capabilities

Cost-effectiveness

Using fair share to assess NDCs: country ratings

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