Description
The international climate negotiations are based on the voluntary participation and cooperation of countries. In the absence of a supranational enforcement institution, any solution or agreement must be considered equitable by all participants.
The agreement on principles has been the key to reaching agreement on several issues during the climate change negotiations in the past. Often opinions are diverse, discussions complicated and on many inter-linked issues at the same time. For many Parties, especially those that participate in the negotiations with limited resources, the agreement on clear principles is seen as priority. Once appropriate principles are agreed, there seems to be some certainty that the fine detail will be developed accordingly.
On the issue of future commitments, some have applied equity principles only to the distribution of the emission rights. E.g. the principle ability to pay would lead to emission limitation or reduction efforts related to the Gross Domestic Product. Others assess complete commitment regimes (including their approach to the distribution of emission rights, but also participation and compliance rules) to equity principles.
Research is ongoing on the appropriate set of equity principles and indicators.
Further research:
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India
Munasinghe Institute for Development (MIND), Sri Lanka
IVIG (COPPE/Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Brazil
Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, United Kingdom
Ecoequity
PEW
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