Climate Policy Based on Individual Emissions Shoibal Chakravarty, Ananth Chikkatur, Heleen de Coninck,

We present a new framework for allocation of a global carbon reduction target among nations, in which the concept of “common but differentiated responsibilities ” refers to the emissions of individuals instead of nations. We use the income distribution of a country to estimate how its CO2 emissions are distributed among its citizens, from which we build up a global CO2 distribution. We then propose a simple rule to derive a universal cap on global individual emissions and find corresponding limits on national aggregate emissions from this cap. All of the world’s high-CO2-emitting individuals are treated the same, regardless of where they live. Any future global emissions goal (target and timeframe) can be converted into national reduction targets, which are determined by “Business as Usual ” projections of national carbon emissions and in-country income distributions. Reducing projected global emissions in 2030 by 13 GtCO2, for example, would require the engagement of 1.13 billion high emitters, roughly equally distributed in four regions: the U.S., the OECD minus the U.S. China, and the non-OECD minus China. We also modify our methodology to place a floor on emissions of the world’s lowest CO2 emitters and demonstrate that climate mitigation and poverty alleviation are largely decoupled