Equity and international climate change negotiations: a matter of perspective

Equity issues have been among the most contentious of those that stand in the way of full international agreement on a unified approach to the climate change problem. Various underlying principles of equity can be discerned from the relevant literature and the positions taken by countries, country groups, and non-government groups. Here these principles are organized into a framework which illustrates the variety of intersecting and competing concerns involved in differing notions of equity in the climate change context. A consideration of some of the ways in which principles of equity have been or might be put into practice highlights the interconnectedness of countries' perceptions of equity and their particular national circumstances, and indicates the extreme difficulty of reaching international agreement on an effective coordinated approach to climate change. It is suggested that 'bottom-up' approaches are currently more likely than the formal international framework to be capable of marshalling the support necessary to achieve effective environmental outcomes. In future negotiations, differing notions of equity will demand that the continuing search for a workable international approach, or approaches, be based on careful differentiation between Parties.