CAN MULTICRITERIA RULES FAIRLY DISTRIBUTE CLIMATE BURDENS - OECD RESULTS FROM 3 BURDEN-SHARING RULES

An important feature of the Protocol concluded in Kyoto, Japan, in Dec ember 1997 is the differentiation of the climate targets of the indust rialized countries, A more systematic: approach to burden sharing than that leading to the Kyoto Protocol could help negotiating targets aft er 2012, and when including developing countries in the group of count ries with climate targets at a later stage. The article discusses a nu mber of concepts of equity, examines three specific burden sharing rul es and formulae, and presents cost calculations on the burden sharing rules. The three formulae that are explored have some ability to adapt to national circumstances, but none of them creates a burden sharing arrangement that completely equalizes the national income losses as pe rcentage of GDP across the OECD, Nonetheless, the results show that bu rden sharing rules can be useful tools and provide some, but not all, of the guiding framework for climate policy negotiations. (C) 1998 Els evier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.