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January 2005

"The Case for Intensity Targets"

Discussion Paper

By William A. Pizer

Both China, the nation with the largest emissions of greenhouse gases, and India, the fifth-largest emitter, announced in the week before the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) in Copenhagen that they would offer for the purposes of negotiation "intensity targets" at the COP. (Carbon intensity is the amount of CO2 emitted per unit of GDP.) Neither country had offered any potentially internationally-binding target prior to these. China offered a reduction target of 40–45 percent by 2020, over the 2005 intensity. India, a few days later, announced a "voluntary" target of 20–25 percent over the same period. High on the list of topics discussed in Copenhagen will be the relative value of intensity targets versus absolute emissions-reduction-targets, which most industrialized countries, including, also very recently, the United States (17 percent over 2005—provisionally until Congress enacts domestic climate legislation) have offered.

 

AP Photo

January 2005

"The Case for Intensity Targets"

Discussion Paper

By William A. Pizer

Both China, the nation with the largest emissions of greenhouse gases, and India, the fifth-largest emitter, announced in the week before the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) in Copenhagen that they would offer for the purposes of negotiation "intensity targets" at the COP. (Carbon intensity is the amount of CO2 emitted per unit of GDP.) Neither country had offered any potentially internationally-binding target prior to these. China offered a reduction target of 40–45 percent by 2020, over the 2005 intensity. India, a few days later, announced a "voluntary" target of 20–25 percent over the same period. High on the list of topics discussed in Copenhagen will be the relative value of intensity targets versus absolute emissions-reduction-targets, which most industrialized countries, including, also very recently, the United States (17 percent over 2005—provisionally until Congress enacts domestic climate legislation) have offered.

 

AP Photo

January 2005

"The Case for Intensity Targets"

Discussion Paper

By William A. Pizer

Both China, the nation with the largest emissions of greenhouse gases, and India, the fifth-largest emitter, announced in the week before the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) in Copenhagen that they would offer for the purposes of negotiation "intensity targets" at the COP. (Carbon intensity is the amount of CO2 emitted per unit of GDP.) Neither country had offered any potentially internationally-binding target prior to these. China offered a reduction target of 40–45 percent by 2020, over the 2005 intensity. India, a few days later, announced a "voluntary" target of 20–25 percent over the same period. High on the list of topics discussed in Copenhagen will be the relative value of intensity targets versus absolute emissions-reduction-targets, which most industrialized countries, including, also very recently, the United States (17 percent over 2005—provisionally until Congress enacts domestic climate legislation) have offered.

 

AP Photo

January 2005

"The Case for Intensity Targets"

Discussion Paper

By William A. Pizer

Both China, the nation with the largest emissions of greenhouse gases, and India, the fifth-largest emitter, announced in the week before the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) in Copenhagen that they would offer for the purposes of negotiation "intensity targets" at the COP. (Carbon intensity is the amount of CO2 emitted per unit of GDP.) Neither country had offered any potentially internationally-binding target prior to these. China offered a reduction target of 40–45 percent by 2020, over the 2005 intensity. India, a few days later, announced a "voluntary" target of 20–25 percent over the same period. High on the list of topics discussed in Copenhagen will be the relative value of intensity targets versus absolute emissions-reduction-targets, which most industrialized countries, including, also very recently, the United States (17 percent over 2005—provisionally until Congress enacts domestic climate legislation) have offered.

 

AP Photo

January 2005

"The Case for Intensity Targets"

Discussion Paper

By William A. Pizer

Both China, the nation with the largest emissions of greenhouse gases, and India, the fifth-largest emitter, announced in the week before the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) in Copenhagen that they would offer for the purposes of negotiation "intensity targets" at the COP. (Carbon intensity is the amount of CO2 emitted per unit of GDP.) Neither country had offered any potentially internationally-binding target prior to these. China offered a reduction target of 40–45 percent by 2020, over the 2005 intensity. India, a few days later, announced a "voluntary" target of 20–25 percent over the same period. High on the list of topics discussed in Copenhagen will be the relative value of intensity targets versus absolute emissions-reduction-targets, which most industrialized countries, including, also very recently, the United States (17 percent over 2005—provisionally until Congress enacts domestic climate legislation) have offered.

 

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