IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-31204-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sharing the effort of the European Green Deal among countries

Author

Listed:
  • Karl W. Steininger

    (University of Graz
    University of Graz)

  • Keith Williges

    (University of Graz
    University of Graz)

  • Lukas H. Meyer

    (University of Graz)

  • Florian Maczek

    (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis)

  • Keywan Riahi

    (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis)

Abstract

In implementing the European Green Deal to align with the Paris Agreement, the EU has raised its climate ambition and in 2022 is negotiating the distribution of increased mitigation effort among Member States. Such partitioning of targets among subsidiary entities is becoming a major challenge for implementation of climate policies around the globe. We contrast the 2021 European Commission proposal - an allocation based on a singular country attribute - with transparent and reproducible methods based on three ethical principles. We go beyond traditional effort-sharing literature and explore allocations representing an aggregated least regret compromise between different EU country perspectives on a fair allocation. While the 2021 proposal represents a nuanced compromise for many countries, for others a further redistribution could be considered equitable. Whereas we apply our approach within the setting of the EU negotiations, the framework can easily be adapted to inform debates worldwide on sharing mitigation effort among subsidiary entities.

Suggested Citation

  • Karl W. Steininger & Keith Williges & Lukas H. Meyer & Florian Maczek & Keywan Riahi, 2022. "Sharing the effort of the European Green Deal among countries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-31204-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31204-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31204-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-31204-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yann Robiou du Pont & M. Louise Jeffery & Johannes Gütschow & Joeri Rogelj & Peter Christoff & Malte Meinshausen, 2017. "Correction: Corrigendum: Equitable mitigation to achieve the Paris Agreement goals," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(2), pages 153-153, February.
    2. Yann Robiou du Pont & Malte Meinshausen, 2018. "Warming assessment of the bottom-up Paris Agreement emissions pledges," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Jonas Karstensen & Glen P. Peters & Robbie M. Andrew, 2018. "Trends of the EU’s territorial and consumption-based emissions from 1990 to 2016," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 131-142, November.
    4. Nicole J. Berg & Heleen L. Soest & Andries F. Hof & Michel G. J. Elzen & Detlef P. Vuuren & Wenying Chen & Laurent Drouet & Johannes Emmerling & Shinichiro Fujimori & Niklas Höhne & Alexandre C. Kõber, 2020. "Implications of various effort-sharing approaches for national carbon budgets and emission pathways," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 1805-1822, October.
    5. Ian Gough, 2015. "Climate change and sustainable welfare: the centrality of human needs," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 39(5), pages 1191-1214.
    6. Kate Dooley & Ceecee Holz & Sivan Kartha & Sonja Klinsky & J. Timmons Roberts & Henry Shue & Harald Winkler & Tom Athanasiou & Simon Caney & Elizabeth Cripps & Navroz K. Dubash & Galen Hall & Paul G. , 2021. "Ethical choices behind quantifications of fair contributions under the Paris Agreement," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(4), pages 300-305, April.
    7. Niklas H�hne & Michel den Elzen & Donovan Escalante, 2014. "Regional GHG reduction targets based on effort sharing: a comparison of studies," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 122-147, January.
    8. Takeshi Kuramochi & Mark Roelfsema & Angel Hsu & Swithin Lui & Amy Weinfurter & Sander Chan & Thomas Hale & Andrew Clapper & Andres Chang & Niklas Höhne, 2020. "Beyond national climate action: the impact of region, city, and business commitments on global greenhouse gas emissions," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 275-291, March.
    9. Marco Siddi, 2021. "Coping With Turbulence: EU Negotiations on the 2030 and 2050 Climate Targets," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 327-336.
    10. Ceecee Holz & Sivan Kartha & Tom Athanasiou, 2018. "Fairly sharing 1.5: national fair shares of a 1.5 °C-compliant global mitigation effort," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 117-134, February.
    11. Maria Damon & Daniel H Cole & Elinor Ostrom & Thomas Sterner, 2019. "Grandfathering: Environmental Uses and Impacts," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 13(1), pages 23-42.
    12. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Mastruzzi, Massimo, 2010. "The worldwide governance indicators : methodology and analytical issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5430, The World Bank.
    13. Yann Robiou du Pont & M. Louise Jeffery & Johannes Gütschow & Joeri Rogelj & Peter Christoff & Malte Meinshausen, 2017. "Equitable mitigation to achieve the Paris Agreement goals," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 38-43, January.
    14. Narasimha D. Rao & Jihoon Min, 2018. "Decent Living Standards: Material Prerequisites for Human Wellbeing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 225-244, July.
    15. Hall, Peter A. & Taylor, Rosemary C. R., 1996. "Political science and the three new institutionalisms," MPIfG Discussion Paper 96/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joachim Peter Tilsted & Anders Bjørn, 2023. "Green frontrunner or indebted culprit? Assessing Denmark’s climate targets in light of fair contributions under the Paris Agreement," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(8), pages 1-22, August.
    2. Xuemei Bai & Syezlin Hasan & Lauren Seaby Andersen & Anders Bjørn & Şiir Kilkiş & Daniel Ospina & Jianguo Liu & Sarah E. Cornell & Oscar Sabag Muñoz & Ariane Bremond & Beatrice Crona & Fabrice DeClerc, 2024. "Translating Earth system boundaries for cities and businesses," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 7(2), pages 108-119, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ceecee Holz & Guy Cunliffe & Kennedy Mbeva & Pieter W. Pauw & Harald Winkler, 2023. "Tempering and enabling ambition: how equity is considered in domestic processes preparing NDCs," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 271-292, September.
    2. Biying Yu & Zihao Zhao & Yi-Ming Wei & Lan-Cui Liu & Qingyu Zhao & Shuo Xu & Jia-Ning Kang & Hua Liao, 2023. "Approaching national climate targets in China considering the challenge of regional inequality," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Michel G. J. Elzen & Ioannis Dafnomilis & Nicklas Forsell & Panagiotis Fragkos & Kostas Fragkiadakis & Niklas Höhne & Takeshi Kuramochi & Leonardo Nascimento & Mark Roelfsema & Heleen Soest & Frank Sp, 2022. "Updated nationally determined contributions collectively raise ambition levels but need strengthening further to keep Paris goals within reach," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 1-29, June.
    4. Michel G. J. Elzen & Ioannis Dafnomilis & Nicklas Forsell & Panagiotis Fragkos & Kostas Fragkiadakis & Niklas Höhne & Takeshi Kuramochi & Leonardo Nascimento & Mark Roelfsema & Heleen Soest & Frank Sp, 2022. "Updated nationally determined contributions collectively raise ambition levels but need strengthening further to keep Paris goals within reach," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 27(6), pages 1-29, August.
    5. Athanasoglou, Stergios, 2022. "On the existence of efficient, individually rational, and fair environmental agreements," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    6. Xuemei Bai & Syezlin Hasan & Lauren Seaby Andersen & Anders Bjørn & Şiir Kilkiş & Daniel Ospina & Jianguo Liu & Sarah E. Cornell & Oscar Sabag Muñoz & Ariane Bremond & Beatrice Crona & Fabrice DeClerc, 2024. "Translating Earth system boundaries for cities and businesses," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 7(2), pages 108-119, February.
    7. Chen, Hao & Qi, Shaozhou & Zhang, Jihong, 2022. "Towards carbon neutrality with Chinese characteristics: From an integrated perspective of economic growth-equity-environment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    8. Milena Büchs & Noel Cass & Caroline Mullen & Karen Lucas & Diana Ivanova, 2023. "Emissions savings from equitable energy demand reduction," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 8(7), pages 758-769, July.
    9. Teddy Serrano & Sandra Aparcana & Fatemeh Bakhtiari & Alexis Laurent, 2021. "Contribution of circular economy strategies to climate change mitigation: Generic assessment methodology with focus on developing countries," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(6), pages 1382-1397, December.
    10. Khabbazan, Mohammad M. & von Hirschhausen, Christian, 2021. "The implication of the Paris targets for the Middle East through different cooperation options," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    11. Gebara, C.H. & Laurent, A., 2023. "National SDG-7 performance assessment to support achieving sustainable energy for all within planetary limits," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    12. Mauricio Marrone & Martina K Linnenluecke, 2020. "Interdisciplinary Research Maps: A new technique for visualizing research topics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-16, November.
    13. Kakeu, Johnson & Agbo, Maxime, 2022. "International transfer to reduce global inequality and transboundary pollution," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    14. Chepeliev, Maksym & Diachuk, Oleksandr & Podolets, Roman & Trypolska, Galyna, 2021. "The role of bioenergy in Ukraine's climate mitigation policy by 2050," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    15. Jiang, Hong-Dian & Purohit, Pallav & Liang, Qiao-Mei & Dong, Kangyin & Liu, Li-Jing, 2022. "The cost-benefit comparisons of China's and India's NDCs based on carbon marginal abatement cost curves," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    16. Salekpay, Foroogh, 2021. "Distributing the European Union Greenhouse Gas emission 2030," Working Papers 2072/534909, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    17. Nicole J. Berg & Heleen L. Soest & Andries F. Hof & Michel G. J. Elzen & Detlef P. Vuuren & Wenying Chen & Laurent Drouet & Johannes Emmerling & Shinichiro Fujimori & Niklas Höhne & Alexandre C. Kõber, 2020. "Implications of various effort-sharing approaches for national carbon budgets and emission pathways," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 1805-1822, October.
    18. Marian Leimbach & Nico Bauer, 2022. "Capital markets and the costs of climate policies," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 24(3), pages 397-420, July.
    19. Tilsted, Joachim Peter & Bjørn, Anders & Majeau-Bettez, Guillaume & Lund, Jens Friis, 2021. "Accounting matters: Revisiting claims of decoupling and genuine green growth in Nordic countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    20. Yosuke Arino & Fuminori Sano & Keigo Akimoto, 2017. "Future Fossil Fuel Price Impacts on NDC Achievement; Estimation of GHG Emissions and Mitigation Costs," Eurasian Journal of Economics and Finance, Eurasian Publications, vol. 5(4), pages 16-35.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-31204-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.