The Sovereign Emission Rights Framework: An international emissions trading regime without the hot air

The Sovereign Emission Rights Framework is a proposal by Sandbag, submitted to the European Commission in 2013, for an equitable global emissions trading regime. It argues that emissions rights should be distributed based on 1990 population shares and that historical emissions since 1990 should be counted against these budgets to avoid 'hot air' and ensure a fair distribution of the remaining carbon space needed to avoid 2°C of warming.

• The proposed Sovereign Emissions Rights framework suggests that the global greenhouse emissions budget to 2050 should be back-calculated from 1990, the year the IPCC's first assessment report made the dangers of climate change globally acknowledged. This budget should be divided among nations based on their share of the global population in 1990.
• Under this framework, all territorial emissions produced since 1990, as well as emissions rights or offset credits from the Kyoto Protocol, should be counted against national budgets. To ensure cost-effectiveness, fossil and industrial CO2 emissions under these budgets should be tradable between countries or through devolved cap-and-trade schemes.
• The report criticizes the use of 'effort-sharing' models, such as those found in the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, which the European Parliament and Council used to endorse an 80-95% reduction target for Europe by 2050. Sandbag argues these are not scientific targets but results of incompatible models that often favor historical emitters by treating their past emissions as a moral baseline.
• Applying the framework's methodology, the European Union (EU27) would be assigned a 60-year budget of 204 billion tonnes (9% of the global budget). As of 2012, the EU had already used approximately 57% of this budget.
• The report identifies several countries that have already exceeded their 1990-2050 budgets under this framework as of 2012: the United States (140%), Australia (160%), Canada (146%), and Saudi Arabia (126%).
• Sandbag proposes that Europe should unilaterally commit to a domestic emissions trajectory consistent with a cost-effective global pathway to 2°C. This trajectory aligns with the European Commission's 2050 Low Carbon Roadmap, targeting reductions of -25% by 2020, -40% by 2030, -60% by 2040, and -80% by 2050.
• The report suggests that if other nations adopt this framework, Europe's net emissions should be limited to roughly 87 billion tonnes between 2013 and 2050. However, if Europe does not increase its pre-2020 ambition, it may need to purchase emissions rights for 42% of its post-2020 emissions (approximately 34 billion tonnes) to meet the 2050 Roadmap targets.

APA

Morris, D., & Watson, L. (2013). The Sovereign Emission Rights Framework: An international emissions trading regime without the hot air. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2020/03/The_Sovereign_Emissions_Rights_Framework_2013.pdf

Chicago

Morris, Damien, and Laurence Watson. The Sovereign Emission Rights Framework: An international emissions trading regime without the hot air. Ember, 2013. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2020/03/The_Sovereign_Emissions_Rights_Framework_2013.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Morris |first1=Damien |last2=Watson |first2=Laurence |title=The Sovereign Emission Rights Framework: An international emissions trading regime without the hot air |publisher=Ember |date=26 June 2013 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2020/03/The_Sovereign_Emissions_Rights_Framework_2013.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{morris2013sovereign, author = {Morris, Damien and Watson, Laurence}, title = {{The Sovereign Emission Rights Framework: An international emissions trading regime without the hot air}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2013}, month = jun, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2020/03/The_Sovereign_Emissions_Rights_Framework_2013.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }