Beyond Kyoto: Equity and Efficiency Reconsidered

By Kristen A. Sheeran, Executive Director, E3 Network. For Economics for Equity and the Environment Network, Policy Brief No. 7, April 2009.

The Kyoto Protocol has been criticized for prioritizing equity over efficiency by exempting developing countries from mandatory emissions caps and by concentrating emissions abatement in the developed world.

Many economists falsely assume that equity and efficiency are conflicting aims.

Where emissions reduction takes place is separable from who pays for it.

Equity and efficiency could both be achieved through a global cap-and-trade system that placed emissions limits on all countries but awarded the majority of emissions rights to developing countries

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