Carmen Bunzl - Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Chapter 2. Options for future climate change architectures 73
In the Contraction and Convergence approach, due to the immediate
participation of all countries, the use of the emission reduction of all of them
can help reduce the global costs. This approach would incur the largest transfer
of resources from developed to developing countries, through the sale of excess
emission allowances.
It has already been introduced before that in order to be cost-effective, the
approach should take the diverse starting positions of countries into account –
the current situation, fossil fuels and potential for renewable energy sources,
climatic conditions and other.
The Tryptich approach was specifically developed to take into account the
structural differences at sector level: standard of living, population growth, fuel
mix for power generation, economic structure, energy efficiencies and projected
future changes.
In the Multistage approach, the introduction of several stages allows for
additional considerations of national circumstances. It allows newly
participating countries to do so through a first ‘soft’ step.
Contraction and Convergence considers national circumstances to the lowest
extent. The only criterion for differentiation of targets is the current level of per
capita emissions. This may lead to abrupt changes in the emission trends of
participants, including major developing countries.
2.1.4.3 Distributional considerations
Policies’ impacts, environmental benefits or costs, are rarely distributed
evenly across stakeholders. The distributional considerations of climate change
policies relate largely to equity.
Equity and fairness may be perceived differently by different people.
Responsibility, capacity and need are widely recognized to serve as a normative
basis for a climate policy regime. The principle of need refers to the fact that
meeting basic human needs and economic development are essential for
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI Carmen Bunzl Boulet Junio 2008