Distributing Emissions Rights in the Global Order: The Case for Equal Per Capita Allocation

Abstract

It is widely accepted that citizens of the wealthiest nations have contributed the most to climate change through high consumption and greenhouse gas-intensive production, and that, in turn, climate change is geographically most threatening to some of the world's poorest persons. This inequitable situation - where the consumption habits of the wealthy are understood to produce observable adverse effects on the less well-off - suggests that assigning responsibility for climate change should involve an appeal to principles of distributive justice. A just solution to climate change has two main components. First, it should satisfy a goal of equal treatment by rebalancing the existing distribution of economic and political influence in order to give all nations the ability to s1hape the global institutions that affect them. Second, it should reduce total global emissions while equalizing among nations the consumption of greenhouse gas-producing goods and activities. This Note suggests that the best way to satisfy both requirements is to implement equal per capita allocation of emissions rights (EPCA).