CO2 metrics unfair for developing countries
Print Edition
Calculating CO2 emissions solely on the basis of production 鈥渄isproportionately鈥 penalizes developing countries which quite naturally have a higher carbon content in their economic structures, a renowned US expert has said.
鈥淲hat I am hoping for rather is consumption-based accounting of emissions also being brought to the fore as a means to calculate emissions reduction targets,鈥 Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, said in an interview.
The post-modern economic structure of developed countries is 鈥渉ighly consumption 鈥 rather than production 鈥 based,鈥 including consumption effects that draw produced goods from developing countries, Gupta noted.
鈥淏y focusing emissions targets solely on production, rather than on consumption, as is the case currently, the global climate change accounting system disproportionately penalizes developing countries which quite naturally have a higher carbon content in their economic structures,鈥 he said.
Consumption-based emission
Targeting consumption-based emissions and more green-friendly technological support to developing countries would be 鈥渁 meaningful expression鈥 of the principle of common and differentiated responsibilities supposed to reside at the foundation of the multilateral climate change framework, Gupta said.
Talking about the just concluded Leaders Summit on Climate, Gupta said the sight of the United States returning to the Paris Agreement and more broadly to the United Nations-centered climate change framework, and all the major economies pledging to hit their nationally determined contributions, is 鈥渁 hugely welcome one.鈥
It shows that all the major economic powers of the world, notably the United States, China and the European Union and Japan, are 鈥減ulling in unison in the same direction,鈥 he said.
鈥淚t sets an excellent foundation going into COP-26 in Glasgow this November, both to recommit to fulfilling existing targets and thereafter elevating the level of targets 鈥 and ambition 鈥 over the next 5-year cycle,鈥 he said.
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