Fair carbon means no carbon for rich countries

clipped from www.newscientist.com WHAT might a truly fair and effective solution to climate change look like? One answer to that question has just been released and it makes for disturbing reading. For one thing, the scale and speed of emissions cuts required by developed nations is far greater than the commitments governments are currently willing to make. The new analysis is based on the idea that each person on the planet has the right to the same carbon footprint. Researchers at the German Advisory Council on Global Change, which advises the country's government, looked at the impact of this fairness principle on attempts to limit the average global temperature rise to 2 °C, a level that is widely regarded as necessary to avoid disaster, such as high rises in sea level. Calculations published earlier this year (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature08017) suggested that no more than 750 billion tonnes of carbon can be released between now and 2050 if the world is to have a 2-in-3 chance of staying within the 2 °C rise.