Entry points for assessing ‘fair shares’ in national mitigation contributions
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Pelz, Setu
Ganti, Gaurav
Pachauri, Shonali
Rogelj, Joeri
Riahi, Keywan
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Fairness considerations have long been central to the international climate change mitigation discourse, generating numerous scientific and philosophical debates. Yet, there remains a pressing need for practical guidance on developing assertions of fairness in national mitigation contributions. The Paris Agreement mandates that subsequent nationally determined contributions (NDCs) submitted under Article 4 represent a progression compared to previous NDCs. Further decisions under the Paris Agreement mandate that NDCs include clear and transparent considerations of fairness, as recalled in the first Global Stocktake. We propose a practical approach to this, comprising a set of 'entry points' that represent key stages where decisions are taken in 'fair share' quantifications, from interpreting foundational principles to selecting indicators and presenting results. By bridging the gap between scholarly debates and practical application, this work supports the integration of clear and transparent fairness considerations into climate policy commitments. We demonstrate the use of our approach through a case study.
Date Issued
2025-02-01
Date Acceptance
2024-12-31
Citation
Environmental Research Letters, 2025, 20 (2)
ISSN
1748-9326
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Journal / Book Title
Environmental Research Letters
Volume
20
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
License URL
Identifier
10.1088/1748-9326/ada45f
Subjects
fair shares
equity
carbon budgets
nationally determined contributions
foundational principles
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
024012
Date Publish Online
2025-01-16