News

Calculating what we owe

Climate change : nature.com subject feeds · last updated

Calculating what we owe | Nature Sustainability

A bold study now combines rigorous ethical criteria to calculate national obligations based on each country’s level of ‘overshoot’ in appropriation of the atmosphere’s capacity to absorb carbon emissions. The findings suggest that a massive debt is owed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

$29.99 / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles

$119.00 per year

only $9.92 per issue

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Negotiation of a Framework Convention on Climate Change. Elements relating to mechanisms. Vanuatu: Draft annex relating to article 23 (insurance) for inclusion in the revised single text on elements relating to mechanisms (A/AC.237/WG.II/Misc.13) submitted by the Co-chairmen of Working Group II (Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1991).
COP27 reaches breakthrough agreement on new “loss and damage” fund for vulnerable countries. United Nations (20 Nov 2022);
https://go.nature.com/3IXPAhE
Falzon, D. et al. Glob. Environ. Polit. (in the press).
Birnbaum, M. How a small island got world’s highest court to take on climate justice. Washington Post (29 Mar 2023).
Fanning, A. L. & Hickel, J. Nat. Sustain.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01130-8(2023).
Baer, P., Athanasiou, T., Kartha, S. & Kemp-Benedict, E. The Greenhouse Development Rights Framework: The Right to Development in a Climate Constrained World 2nd Edn (Heinrich Böll Foundation, Christian Aid, EcoEquity and theStockholm Environment Institute, 2008).
Holz, C., Kartha, S. & Athanasiou, T. Int. Environ. Agreem. 18, 117–134 (2018).
The Imperative of Cooperation. Steps toward an equitable response to the climate crisis (Civil Society Equity Review, 2022);
https://www.equityreview.org/
Robinson, K. S. The Ministry for the Future (Orbit Books, 2020).
Klinsky, S. et al. Glob. Environ. Change 44, 170–173 (2017).

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Roberts, J.T. Calculating what we owe. Nat Sustain (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01142-4
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01142-4

Related Knowledge Center: Biodiversity and wildlife

State of Play

The impact of climate change on wildlife and the supporting ecosystem.

More informationabout Biodiversity and wildlife