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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
The final negotiations for a climate agreement to follow up the Kyoto Protocol will take place at the UN climate summit in Paris, starting Monday, 30th November 2015. The aim of these negotiations is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In order to decide on emission allocations and how these levels should be monitored, it is necessary to clarify which country or countries any specific emission is to be attributed to. In a study directed by economist Karl Steininger, an interdisciplinary team at the University of Graz has analysed different possibilities of allocating emissions and their impacts. The surprising results of their work have recently been published in Nature Climate Change.
“In general, different actors along a global value chain can be made responsible for the very same emission,” says Karl Steininger, explaining the starting point of the study. He gives the example of “When energy used to produce a smartphone is generated by burning coal, several different actors can be seen to be responsible for the emissions: the country where the coal is extracted, for example Australia, the country, where the coal is used to produce the Smartphone, for example China, or the country where the phone is bought and used, for example Austria.” Depending on whether the principle of fossil fuel extraction, of production, or of consumption is used, Australia, China or Austria would need a higher emission allocation.
Referring to current figures, Steininger says that “if you consider the current situation, for example in Austria, the country emits 13 tons of CO2 equivalents per inhabitant and year according to the production principle currently used by the UN, but 22 tons of CO2 equivalents according to the consumption principle, almost double the first amount. If the principle of fossil fuel extraction is used, this number shrinks to one ton.” As a comparison, Germany has 13 tons of emissions according to the production principle, 18 tons according to the consumption principle and three tones according to the fossil fuel extraction principle.
The research carried out by economist Karl Steininger and his team of economic and climate researchers provides a basis for the direction that needs to be established during the climate negotiations. “We advocate a cost-efficient, effective reduction in emissions and fair implementation, with the help of emissions balances that in parallel follow all fundamental principles,” says Steininger. Following only the current one is insufficient: If the EU moves environmentally polluting production to other continents, without reducing demand for the goods, global emissions do not decline – in fact they may even increase.
The authors of the study do not describe one principle as being better than the others because, in the case of most emissions, no one single country can be held responsible. Every country involved can contribute to the reduction of emissions. Furthermore, Steininger believes that “causal responsibility for emissions” should not be the only criterion. “A better approach would be to see which countries have the capacities to cope with converting to a clean economy. According to distributive justice, these countries are those who have become rich, in part due to earlier, exceptionally high use of fossil energy and emissions,” says the researcher.
For a sustainable and fair reduction based on a comprehensive balancing of greenhouse gases, we need international agreement on guidelines, which can then be used to create a transparent assessment and employment of such balances as policy basis.
Publication
Multiple carbon accounting to support just and effective climate policies
Karl W. Steininger, Christian Lininger, Lukas H. Meyer, Pablo Muñoz and Thomas Schinko
Nature Climate Change, DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2867
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2867 (as of 23.11.2015, 5pm CET)
Figure available for download (pdf, jpg)
https://webadmin.uni-graz.at/fileadmin/portal/forschen/Files/UniGraz_greenhouse_...
https://public.sharepoint.uni-graz.at/sites/bilderpool/Pool/UniGraz_greenhouse_g...
Vector graphic on request
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Karl Steininger
Institute of Economics and Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change
University of Graz
Tel.: +43 (0)664/8463147, (0)316/380-3451
E-Mail: karl.steininger@uni-graz.at
Attribution of greenhouse gas emissions according to different allocation principles
Source: University of Graz/Nature Climate Change, APA graphic
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