Compensation for atmospheric appropriation
Fanning, Andrew (University of Leeds)
Hickel, Jason 1982- (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)

Date:	2023
Abstract:	Research on carbon inequalities shows that some countries are overshooting their fair share of the remaining carbon budget and hold disproportionate responsibility for climate breakdown. Scholars argue that overshooting countries owe compensation or reparations to undershooting countries for atmospheric appropriation and climate-related damages. Here we develop a procedure to quantify the level of compensation owed in a 'net zero' scenario where all countries decarbonize by 2050, using carbon prices from IPCC scenarios that limit global warming to 1. 5 °C and tracking cumulative emissions from 1960 across 168 countries. We find that even in this ambitious scenario, the global North would overshoot its collective equality-based share of the 1. 5 °C carbon budget by a factor of three, appropriating half of the global South's share in the process. We calculate that compensation of US $1 92 trillion would be owed to the undershooting countries of the global South for the appropriation of their atmospheric fair shares by 2050, with an average disbursement to those countries of US $9 40 per capita per year. We also examine countries' overshoot of equality-based shares of 350 ppm and 2 °C carbon budgets and quantify the level of compensation owed using earlier and later starting years (1850 and 1992) for comparison.
Grants:	European Commission 101071647 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CEX2019-000940-M
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy ; SDG 13 - Climate Action
Published in:	Nature sustainability, (June 2023) , ISSN 2398-9629

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-023-01130-8

21 p, 2.5 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles