The Kyoto Emissions Targets for Greenhouse Gases and Improvements on Them
Richard Eckaus
Wed Jan 9, 02-03:30pm, E51-372
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
A substantial portion of the difficulties in reaching agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions have their sources in differences among countries the desired distribution of the burdens of emissions constraints. The emissions constraints agreed on at Kyoto are quite arbitrary, both in terms of environmental science and economics. Calculations are presented of the implications of alternative allocations of emissions reductions that do have a plausible ethical basis: equal per capita emissions rights, equal country shares in reductions, equalized welfare costs, and emulation of the allocations of the United Nations budget. All of these would reach the overall Kyoto target at lower overall costs. This conclusion is another example of the well-known result that the overall cost of reducing emissions would be lowered through the participation of the developing countries, in which the costs of emissions reductions are relatively low. In addition, use of any of the alternative allocations analyzed here would eliminate the wholly capricious accommodation given to the countries of the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Contact: Melissa Maney, E52-380, 252-1565, mbegley@mit.edu
Sponsor: Economics
Latest update: 01-Nov-2001
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