I want to briefly address two things that I came across these few days.
1.
Last week, there was a side event on carbon equity being discussed by scientists from China. In recently years, China has grown to be the largest carbon emitter in the world and it is always been blamed for greatly attributing to climate change. So China is taking a more aggressive approach by proposing cumulative emission per capita should also be included and it should play an essential role. China was saying by using the critiria of emission per capita is for equity and sustainability, and it can urge developed countries to compensate and to make deeper cuts. I personally think emission per capita is a factor to consider but it should not come first, and it is not a very convincing reason for developed countries to make more emission reductions. The idea China proposed does make scientific sense, but it may cause developed countries to think it is unfair for them. Most developing countries have a much bigger population but lower emissions compared with developed countries, so of course, they have a much lower emission per capata. Besides, the study China has carried out during the side event was based on the scenario that China would continue to be a country that highly depended on fossil fuels. However, China has been taking a leader role in developing green and renewable energy and it has gradually gained the ability to reverse the trend, so the question of wheather it is fair for China to ask developed countries to take up more responsibilities is being raised.
2.
I was just listening to a discussion about carbon financing. One guy, who’s a journalist, proposed the idea that private sector should voluntarily contribute to adaptation programs. Adaptation is always been brought up along with mitigation, and sometimes peoeple find it hard to differentiate the two. There exists an inbalance between mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation is effective especially for developed countries because it has the financial capability, but it is not what is most needed for the poor countries. Adapation is usually underrepresented in the negotiation, but it provides equity to poor countries to deal the problems that they did not cause. Of course the world, especially the developing world, would love to see private sector funding adaptation programs, but the premise is the private sector would do so voluntarily. What the motivations could be is an issue to be further examined.
Tags: adaptation, Carbon equity
