Method of assessing responsibility for carbon emissions among countries

Only a few months before senior leaders around the world met to come up with a climate change treaty, a research group led by Princeton University scientists developed in a way new to divide responsibility for carbon emissions between countries.

According to scientists this method is very fair and they hope it will receive support from developed and developing countries, senior leaders in these countries have discussed for years about the unfairness of previous proposals.

According to the authors, this method uses a fair theory based on 'common but clearly differentiated responsibilities' of individuals, not countries.

In the introduction, the research team said: 'Our proposal goes beyond considering per capita emissions, proceeding to identify the most polluting individuals in the world, present throughout the country'. Authors include Stephen Pacala, professor of evolutionary and ecological biology; and Robert Socolow, professor of mechanical engineering and aerospace. The concept of Pacala and Socolow on 'balanced spikes', a strategy that offers practical methods to prevent the release of greenhouse gases worldwide in the next five decades, described in' One The truth is not easy to accept '- Al Gore's 2006 film about climate change. This concept has given the climate change policy community a common theme to discuss how to reduce emissions release and allow comparisons between different carbon-cutting strategies.

The main authors of the paper are physicist Shoibal Chakravarty and economist Massimo Tavoni, both research scholars at the Princeton Institute of Environment, a multi-disciplinary center for research and environmental education of University.

The director of the academy, Pacala, said: 'The team worked together to form a new method for this painful problem.'

The proposal uses personal emissions as the best and fairest tool to calculate a nation's responsibility to curb the amount of carbon dioxide, the authors said. This method does not mean that individuals will be filtered out, but those calculations will form the basis for a more reasonable formula. Some of the current strategies using the average of energy used in a country are considered unfair, because these methods mask the true emissions of rich and polluting countries.

A research group led by Princeton University scientists has developed a new way to divide responsibility for carbon emissions between countries. (Photo: NyTimes)

Chakravarty emphasized that a large amount of emissions comes from the use of airplanes, cars and air conditioners: 'Most of the world's emissions come from the wealthy inhabitants of the world, despite nationality. . We estimate that in 2008, half of the world's emissions are from about 700 million people. '

In this new plan, the emission reduction target for each country is calculated in many steps. Researchers use the correlation between income and emissions to calculate individual emissions in countries. Next, they collect these factors to understand the individual's emissions distribution on a global scale.

Towards 2030, researchers have estimated their personal emissions and global emissions at a future time based on predictions of income, population and energy use. They argue that senior leaders around the world will decide that global forecast emissions by 2030 are too high, lower global targets and find suitable ways to divide them appropriately. work goals for each country.

Robyn Eckersley, a professor at the University of Melbourne's School of Social and Political Science, Australia, who specializes in environmental politics and political theory, said: 'This proposal provides a starting point for breaking. break the deadlock of dividing responsibilities of developing and developing countries'.

Researchers believe that this new proposal will be useful in forming the 'threshold' for emissions that individuals should not exceed. If the governments of countries agree to cut emissions so that the amount of carbon in 2030 remains the same, the researchers' calculations suggest that a global reduction in global emissions could be made. if no individual has emissions exceeding 11 tons of carbon dioxide a year. By calculating the emissions of all individuals expected to exceed that threshold, senior leaders can provide targeted emissions reductions for all countries. In this case, by 2030 there will be 1 billion people with such high emissions of 8.1 billion people.

At present, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per capita per year is about 5 tons. Each European produces 10 tons of emissions a year, while the emissions of every American are double that number.

Ottmar Edenhofer, chairman of the Climate Change Economics at the Technical University of Berlin and co-chair of Working Group III, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said: 'Children This indicates that industrialized countries must take the lead in reducing their emissions. However, the victory in the fight against climate change is only achieved if countries cooperate and act. " IPCC was established by the United Nations in 1988 to provide guidance and advice on key issues. books on the risk of climate change The working group is the option to assess the mitigation of climate change impacts by limiting the release of greenhouse gases.

The new research paper shows that it is possible to reduce poverty and carbon emissions at the same time.The authors calculate that addressing poverty through providing energy needs for about 3 billion people does not hinder the goal of reducing the release of fossil fuel emissions. The limit must be reduced, and those with high emissions need to reduce energy consumption to make a difference.

Senior leaders will meet in Copenhagen in December 2009 during a conference to discuss the treaty on global emissions reduction to address climate change. The United Nations Conference on Climate Change in 1992 called on developed countries to reduce carbon emissions and is a prerequisite for participation and compliance with the Kyoto decree 1997.

However, this conference does not provide a timeline for developing countries to follow. Developing countries now contribute more than half of global emissions, and this rate is rising, Chakravarty said.

The article clearly shows the solution to the deadlock between developed and developing countries. Developed countries call for developing countries to share a portion of their emissions mitigation capacity, while developing countries criticize the enormous economic benefits that developed countries have enjoy, much of it comes from the use of fossil fuels.

Socolow said: 'The laws and precedents of the United Nations make it difficult to consider what is happening within countries. That may be why our simple proposal based on personal emissions has never appeared. In the next few decades, global environmental policymakers will need to be wise in considering developing countries. Our proposal is the first step in this direction. '

The study is part of Princeton University's Carbon Mitigation Project. Beginning in 2000, this project offers practical solutions to manage the amount of carbon dioxide released.This project aims to help scientific, technological and environmental studies to provide safe, effective and cost-effective solutions to climate change issues.

Other authors of the study include: Ananth Chikkatur of Harvard University; and Heleen de Coninck of the Energy Research Center, Netherlands.

Refer:

Billion High Emitters Sharing Global CO2 Emissions Among 1 Billion High Emitters.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 7, 2009