FAIR SHARES OF THE EARTH'S RESOURCES

Equity and responsibility are at the heart of the UN Climate Convention, which says "The Parties should protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind, on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities".

Friends of the Earth International argues for the 'equity' principle to be the guiding principle in determining national commitments under the Convention. In particular, Friends of the Earth advocate that targets should be derived on the basis that everybody has a right to an equal share of the available capacity of the atmosphere. This means countries have an equal per capita share of whatever level of greenhouse gas emissions it is deemed safe to emit while keeping climate change within tolerable bounds.

The present situation is not equitable. A per capita approach requires countries listed in the Annex 1 of the Kyoto Protocoll (industrialised countries, primarily responsible for human-induced greenhouse gas emissions) to ultimately reduce their emissions by 80-90 percent. On current understanding of what may constitute a dangerous climate change, this would have to be achieved by 2050. Such reductions both reflect the particular responsibility of industrialised countries to cut their emissions while also allowing some room for manoeuvring amongst developing countries.

Friends of the Earth believes that such 'fair share' targets are achievable and should be the long-term aim of the UNFCCC.

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