Comparison of Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 pledges under the Cancún Agreements

The document analyzes four studies to determine that developing countries have pledged more absolute mitigation than developed countries, though global pledges remain insufficient to limit warming to 2°C. It argues that developed countries must increase their ambition and tighten accounting rules to reflect their greater historical responsibility and financial capacity.

• There is a consistent finding across four different studies that developing country pledges represent a greater amount of absolute mitigation than those of developed countries.
• Current global mitigation pledges are insufficient to meet the 2°C objective and are instead consistent with temperature increases between 2°C and 5°C.
• The actual impact of Annex 1 pledges may be significantly reduced by lenient accounting practices regarding land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF), the use of surplus emission allowances, and the double-counting of offsets.
• Developed countries possess a disproportionate share of the world's capacity to address climate change, controlling approximately three-quarters of global GDP and roughly six-sevenths of discretionary GDP.
• Developed countries are responsible for more than 75 per cent of historical emissions on a cumulative basis and approximately 60 per cent of global emissions when using consumption-based accounting.
• While developed countries must increase their ambition, they cannot prevent dangerous climate change alone; developing countries must also raise their ambition, supported by international financial and technological cooperation.

APA

Kartha, S., & Erickson, P. (2011). Comparison of Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 pledges under the Cancún Agreements. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-PB-2011-Comparison-of-Pledges.pdf

Chicago

Kartha, Sivan, and Peter Erickson. Comparison of Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 pledges under the Cancún Agreements. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2011. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-PB-2011-Comparison-of-Pledges.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kartha |first1=Sivan |last2=Erickson |first2=Peter |title=Comparison of Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 pledges under the Cancún Agreements |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2011 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-PB-2011-Comparison-of-Pledges.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kartha2011comparison, author = {Kartha, Sivan and Erickson, Peter}, title = {{Comparison of Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 pledges under the Cancún Agreements}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2011}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-PB-2011-Comparison-of-Pledges.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }