Estimating countries' additional carbon accountability for closing the mitigation gap based on past and future emissions.

ABSTRACT: Quantifying fair national shares of the remaining global carbon budget has proven challenging. Here, we propose an indicator-additional carbon accountability-that quantifies countries' responsibility for mitigation and CO₂ removal in addition to achieving their own targets. Considering carbon debts since 1990 and future claims based on countries' emission pathways, the indicator uses an equal cumulative per capita emissions approach to allocate accountability for closing the mitigation gap among countries with a positive total excessive carbon claim. The carbon budget is exceeded by 576 Gigatonnes of fossil CO₂ when limiting warming below 1.5 °C (50% probability). Additional carbon accountability is highest for the United States and China, and highest per capita for t

SUBMITTER: Hahn T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11550376 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature