Full Paper - ESEE 2011 - Advancing Ecological Economics

Figure 1 UK GHG Emissions, 1992 to 2004 using different accounting methods, WRAP 2009
CBA provides an additional mechanism for countries to understand the impact that their
consumption of goods and services has on carbon emissions regardless of territorial boundaries.
Whilst there are both advantages and disadvantages to this accounting method in terms of data and
methodology (see Technical Limitations section), it can provide a valuable insight insight, particularly from a
policy perspective. It t can be useful to explore the potential for and importance of policy intervention
to encourage mitigation in a trading partner (Glen P. Peters 2008) and the avoidance of carbon
leakage to countries with no binding emissions reduction targets targets. . This can provide information to
help address the challenge lenge posed by the geographical separation between consumption and the
GHGs emitted in the production of consumable items (Sangwon Suh 2010). It has also been
recognised that the adoption of such a consumption
consumption-based perspective — in addition to the
traditional approach of territorial emissions accounting — opens up the possibility of extending the
range of policy and research applica applications considerably to cover sectoral, , country and product
analysis (Thomas Wiedmann 2009) 2009).
In the international policy framework tthe
he concern with carbon leakage would become unnecessary if
legally binding territorial emissions targets were agreed and achieved across the world and
emissions were successfully reduced to minimal and similar per capita levels across countries countries.
However, until ntil this is a reality, CBA can be useful to help countries understand the true extent of
their impact and potential areas of influence beyond their national boundaries.
Global emissions targets
This paper is set in the context of global climate change and
to a level where there is a minimised risk of dangerous climate change.
in the UK and EU focuses on the avoidance of dangerous climate change, which is interpreted as
contributing to the effort to stabilise global mean surface temperature increases to no more than
2 o This paper is set in the context of global climate change and the necessity to reduce GHG emissions
to a level where there is a minimised risk of dangerous climate change. Current climate policy both
in the UK and EU focuses on the avoidance of dangerous climate change, which is interpreted as
ffort to stabilise global mean surface temperature increases to no more than
C (Schneider et al 2006; the Committee on Climate Change 2008). In order to stabilise at such a
level, the cumulative release of global emissions must be limited to a level comm commensurate with this
degree of change (Zickfeld et al 2009). The alternative if those targets are not met is a greater risk of
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