Equitable mitigation to achieve the Paris Agreement goals

Abstract

Benchmarks to guide countries in ratcheting-up ambition, climate finance, and support in an equitable manner are critical but not yet determined in the context of the Paris Agreement. We identify global cost-optimal mitigation scenarios consistent with the Paris Agreement goals and allocate their emissions dynamically to countries according to five equity approaches. At the national level, China's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) is weaker than any of the five equity approaches, India's NDC is aligned with two, and the EU's and the USA's with three. Most developing countries' conditional (Intended) NDCs (INDCs) are more ambitious than the average of the five equity approaches under t..