Sustainable Cooperation in Global Climate Policy: Specific Formulas and Emission Targets

We propose a framework that, building on the pledges made by governments after the Copenhagen Accord of 2009, could be used to assign allocations of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), across all countries, one budget period at a time, as envisioned at the 2011 negotiations in Durban. Under this two-part plan: (i) China, India, and other developing countries accept targets at Business as Usual (BAU) in the coming budget period, the same period in which the U.S. first agrees to cuts below BAU; and (ii) all countries are asked in the future to make further cuts in accordance with a common numerical formula that each country is likely to view as fair. We use a state of the art integrated assessment model to project economic and environmental effects of the computed emission targets.