Greenhouse gas emission abatement: Equitable burden sharing

On the political stage the climate change debate used to center primarily around intergenerational issues, particularly whether aggressive abatement action was even warranted - on the basis of uncertain scientific projections. In recent years, influenced by both improved scientific knowledge and greater emphasis on the precautionary principle, within policy circles, climate change has become more widely accepted as a significant threat to ecological sustainability. Accordingly, the focus of debate has gradually shifted to intragenerational concerns, with the issue of equitable burden sharing in terms of greenhouse gas emission abatement emerging as a point of primary contention. This paper integrates scientific and political analyses to explore a number of questions which have been raised during the debate. In particular, we draw on carbon cycle modelling to investigate effective and equitable strategies of emission reduction consistent with stabilization of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations at 750 ppmv by 2100.