Fairness in Allocating the Global Emissions Budget

Abstract

One central question of climate justice is how to fairly allocate remaining ‘carbon space’ or a global emissions budget. Some commentators hold that the idea of fairness is hopelessly equivocal on this point. Others claim that we need a complete theory of distributive justice to answer the question. This paper argues that on the contrary, given only weak assumptions about fairness, we can show that fairness requires an allocation that is at least as ‘prioritarian’ as the equal per capita view. Since even the equal per capita view is more pri-oritarian than is politically feasible, fairness is univocal enough for all practical purposes.