In defence of historical accountability for greenhouse gas emissions

This commentary argues in defence of equal per capita emissions with histor ical accountability as a general rule for allocating the right to emit gree nhouse gases. Historical accountability takes into account historical inequ alities in per capita emissions. Implicitly it gives every human being an e qual share of the global resource atmosphere, independent of place or time. Three reasons are put forward to argue why historical accountability shoul d be the guiding principle for an international agreement allocating rights of emissions. In addition, as it has been dismissed by many scholars, six arguments are given to refute objections against historical accountability. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.