Fair Shares and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions: What can we learn from an equity review?

This policy brief argues that systematic reviews of national climate pledges based on diverse fairness perspectives can provide critical insights into whether countries are doing their 'fair share' to keep global warming below 2°C, contrasting the bottom-up nature of INDCs with top-down scientific requirements.

• The document argues that a systematic review of national climate pledges, using a variety of plausible fairness perspectives, can provide valuable insights despite the contentious nature of effort-sharing discussions. This applies to both ex ante assessments and ex post reviews of national contributions.
• Leading to COP 20 in Lima, several entities have provided previews of their mitigation contributions: the European Union aims for at least a 40% reduction below 1990 levels by 2030; the United States targets a 26–28% reduction from 2005 levels by 2025; and China intends to peak emissions around 2030 and cap coal use in 2020.
• Intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) are based on what Parties are willing to offer rather than top-down scientific requirements or allocated effort. There are calls for these to be formally reviewed to ensure collective ambition is sufficient to keep global warming below 2°C.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2014). Fair Shares and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions: What can we learn from an equity review? https://www.sei.org/publications/fair-shares-and-intended-nationally-determined-contributions-what-can-we-learn-from-an-equity-review/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Fair Shares and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions: What can we learn from an equity review? 2014. https://www.sei.org/publications/fair-shares-and-intended-nationally-determined-contributions-what-can-we-learn-from-an-equity-review/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Fair Shares and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions: What can we learn from an equity review? |date=3 December 2014 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/fair-shares-and-intended-nationally-determined-contributions-what-can-we-learn-from-an-equity-review/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2014fair, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Fair Shares and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions: What can we learn from an equity review?}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2014}, month = dec, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/fair-shares-and-intended-nationally-determined-contributions-what-can-we-learn-from-an-equity-review/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }