A good basis for action on 'carbon budget'

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has established a solid basis for both international and national action.

The world's top climate scientists, and a handful of diplomats, have just approved a summary of "policy relevant" conclusions on the physical science of climate change. The most controversial finding of the report is also the most significant one for us.

Smoke billows from a factory in Dezhou, Shandong province. Provided to China Daily

The "carbon budget" was the last part of the summary to be decided, and the subject of hours of heated discussions in the early hours of Sept 27.

The political implication is clear. Annual emission targets pit old against new emitters and point the finger at economic growth in developing countries, ignoring the historical emissions of the developed countries. The problem is that it also deals with the symptoms and ignores the causes of these emissions.

A carbon budget will consider the activities that generate these emissions in the course of economic development, leading to very different conclusions. It recognizes that the bio-physical and social systems are intertwined in such a way that the conditions and responses to external forcing, like increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, are based on the synergy between the two sub-systems. Consequently, the full global system has to be studied rather than its individual components, as none of the challenges can be fully studied without addressing the other challenges. So far the projections about the future have focused on environmental damage rather than the relationship between people and planet.