Using a Model of Alternative Emissions Rights to Build a Consensus for a Just and Effective Greenhouse Treaty

Abstract

"Negotiating a greenhouse gas reduction treaty that is both effective in stabilizing atmospheric GHG concentrations and is perceived as fair by all nations is an enormous challenge. It seems unavoidable that reducing GHGs will require an overall constraint of consumption, and that ethical considerations of both ability to pay and responsibility for past emissions will require substantial transfer of resources from rich to poor nations. These conditions set up an inevitable conflict as the governments and citizens of the rich nations are forced to make sacrifices for the benefit of poorer nations as well as of future generations of all nations."