Sharing the burden of adaptation financing: Translating ethical principles into practical policy
Burden-sharing of adaptation costs to climate change has received limited attention in the scientific literature. This study identifies a set of principles that can serve as a basis for choices about how to share the burden of the costs of adaptation to climate change, i.e. historical responsibility and capacity to pay. The numerical analysis shows that the developed countries need to contribute the greatest burden.
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Burden-sharing of adaptation costs to climate change
This study establishes a conceptual framework that identifies a set of principles that can serve as a basis for choices about how to share the burden of the costs of adaptation to climate change. This study assesses how these principles might be translated into practice.
Three principles are identified:
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Deontology
Individuals and countries can be held responsible for their acts. -
Solidarity
Share all costs equally among parties -
Consequentialism
Consider outcomes for parties in terms of the relative consequences
We translate these principles into criteria that can be applied in assigning a share of the financial burden to individual countries, namely historical responsibility and capacity to pay for adaptation. Specific political and scientific choices are discussed, highlighting implications for international burden-sharing schemes.
From the numerical assessment, it is clear that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) industrialized countries (Annex I countries) carry the greatest burden under most scenarios, but contributions differ substantially subject to the choice of an indicator for capacity to pay. The contributions are less sensitive to choices related to responsibility calculations, apart from those associated with land-use related emissions.
The Netherlands
We find that the contribution of The Netherlands to financing adaptation would lie between 0.6% and 1.3% of total global costs depending on the policy scenario chosen. Assuming costs of climate adaptation is $100 billion per year (United Nations Development Programme, 2007), the total financial contribution by The Netherlands could range between $600-1300 million per year, depending on the principles and parameters chosen.
More information
Institute for Environmental Studies (IvM) Newsletter January 2009
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) World development report 2007/2008 - Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world.
| Bibliography | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Dellink R ; Dekker T ; Elzen M den ; Aiking H ; Peters J ; Gupta J ; Bergsma E ; Berkhout F |
| Report no. | 500114010 |
| Publication date | 31-12-2008 |
| Pages | 61 |
| Taal | en |
| Opmerkingen | Flyer presented at the Conferences of Parties in Poznan (COP14) |
