The Rich "World Wide" -Pay the Cost of Climate Cha

[Bruce551]

Who's to Blame? Making Poor Nations Share the Cost of Fighting Climate Change

A proposal to set international carbon-reduction targets based on the distribution of one billion "high emitters" in both developed and developing countries

By Douglas Fischer

A new framework for reducing carbon emissions takes a crack at the knottiest dilemma confronting a global climate solution: how to divvy cuts between rich and poor nations.

A new study published Monday attempts to sidestep the rancor, finding that virtually every country has a class of individuals - the so-called "high emitters" - enjoying a rich, carbon-intensive lifestyle. If those individuals, no matter their locale, are forced to take responsibility for their emissions, a great swath of countries become participants in the climate effort, the study claims.

"Rich people in poor countries shouldn't be able to hide behind the poor people in those countries," said Robert Socolow, co-director of Princeton's Carbon Mitigation Initiative and a co-author of the study, published in the journal Proceeds of the National Academy of Sciences.

The problem has dominated talks leading to December's Copenhagen negotiations on a post-Kyoto accord. Developing nations expect the industrialized world to do the heavy lifting on emissions cuts; industrialized countries, noting that the developing world will account for upwards of 97 percent of future emissions growth, want assurances that such growth will be curbed.

The analysis, "Sharing global CO2 emissions reductions among one billion high emitters," by a group of Princeton University researchers, proposes spreading responsibility for reductions among individuals rather than countries.

Under this framework, the international community would draw a single, global line for carbon emissions. Countries would then be responsible for reducing the carbon footprint of individuals living above that line. Emissions from individuals living below the line do not factor into the accounting.

Overall, the researchers found that the United States and China would have the largest carbon dioxide reduction targets, while Russia, India, the Middle East, South Africa and north Africa would all have sizable targets, due to their energy industries.

The proposal also sets a floor for the 3 billion people predicted by 2030 to be emitting less than one ton of carbon dioxide a year. Those people - the poorest of the poor - should focus solely on bettering their lifestyles, and they should do so via any economical means, the authors say.

They can safely come up to one-ton-a-year emissions target without breaking the global carbon bank.

It is folly, in other words, to light 10 villages via solar power when the same money could equip 100 villages with diesel-powered generators, Socolow said.

"There's no reason people at that level have to meet carbon goals," he said. "It starts with the high emitters."

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=poor-pay-for-climate-change&print=true

100% behind this, the rich should pay for their carbon intensive lifestyle. In Thailand, the rich live in their "Moo Bans" solar cooker houses with conditioners on 24 hours day. Carbon TAX on big cars & SUVs. And a special high emitter "Mall Tax" for MBK, Siam Square, and Central World. Get Real.

Don't agree with replacing Solar power in villages with diesel generators. Most villagers like solar power and solar home systems designed properly can be cost effective when compared to fossil fuel.

Everyday I see Thais driving big SUVs & BMWs one person in the car, not a care in the world, they want to do that, make them pay!!!!

:!:

[Bruce551]

Wanted add this:

EACH PERSON'S EMISSIONS

By counting the emissions of all the individuals likely to exceed this level, world leaders could provide target emissions cuts for each country. Currently, the world average for individual annual carbon emissions is about 5 tons; each European produces 10 tons and each American produces 20 tons.

With international climate talks set to start this week in Italy among the countries that pollute the most, the authors hope policymakers will look at the strong link between how rich people are and how much carbon dioxide they emit.

"You're distributing the task of doing something about emissions reduction based on the proportion of the population in the country that's actually doing the most damage," said Shoibal Chakravarty of the Princeton Environment Institute, one of the study's authors.

Rich people's lives tend to give off more greenhouse gases because they drive more fossil-fueled vehicles, travel frequently by air and live in big houses that take more fuel to heat and cool.

I'd like to see a breakdown by cities in the USA of individual carbon emissions, I know that San Francisco's is one of the most energy efficient cities in the world.

[eagle]

Looks like we should have carbon use insurance soon :shock: