Elizabeth Stanton, an economist at the Stockholm Environment Institute who is active in the Economics for Equity and Environment (the E3 Network), has done a service in Development without Carbon. It’s a crystal-clear paper that lays out a simple framework for thinking about equitable development within a constrained emissions space — like this planet. It’s goal, particularly, is to show that traditional economic models are not up to the job, but that the job itself remains doable.
It proceeds by exploring the potential greenhouse gas emissions, and corresponding mitigation obligations, of three “stylized futures” for developing countries:
* Without Development: a business-as-usual (no policy) scenario with the standard economic growth rates found in climate-economics models;
* Development with Carbon: a business-as-usual (no policy) scenario with more rapid economic growth rates.
* Development without Carbon: a policy scenario with rapid economic growth and significant public measures to reduce emissions
Stanton’s approach is influenced by the Greenhouse Development Rights approach, but she considers other justice-based approaches as well. Her goal is show the problem know known as “equitable access to sustainable development” is a realizable one, if we think about it in a reasonably coherent way.
