Assessing responsibility for GHG emissions
Assessing responsibility for GHG emissions
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CRIS Scientific Seminar 2023-2024
Friday, September 15th 2023, 11:30 am
Sciences Po, 1 place St-Thomas, room K008
Assessing responsibility for GHG emissions
Antonin Pottier (Maître de Conférences, EHESS - CIRED)
Numerous assessments of the responsibility for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions already exist in the literature. Assessing responsiblity however assumes a responsibility principle, that is a connection between emissions and the social entities deemed responsible for them. While the responsibility principles for countries have long been debated, the recent focus of the literature on individual emissions has relied only on consumer responsibility. I will highlight that the problem is analogous for both countries and individual: measuring emissions presupposes a perspective on the responsibility of agents.
I will then present two recent empirical studies that assess GHG emissions inequality in France. These studies are founded on contrasting responsibility principles: downstream responsibility, also known as income-based accounting, and upstream or consumer responsibility, often referred to as consumption-based accounting. Additionally, I will delve into a comprehensive discussion of the limitations of our data when it comes to evaluating consumption-based emissions, often referred to as the carbon footprint.
