Policy Proposal 2: Guiding Propositions on Binding Climate Commitments
GLOBAL CLIMATE ACTION THROUGH LEGALLY BINDING COMMITMENTS
For COP26 to have global impact, we need innovative and ambitious ideas to embody legally
enforceable commitments of some kind. Carbon border taxes, which seem to be imminent in
the EU, are an example. Legally binding annual, 5-year, 2030, and 2050 emissions targets
would be another.
- Non-state actors including cities, companies and civil society institutions as well as
states should be included in making commitments. - A starting point would be coalitions of willing states that took the lead as a top tier
prepared to make binding commitments (amongst themselves or to their citizens or
both) to reduce emissions. The EU might be the starting point for such a coalition. - Global emissions need to fall by about 50% between 2021 and 2030 (i.e. 8% each year)
to be broadly consistent with a 1.5C target. At the Biden climate summit, the US, the
EU, Japan, Canada and the UK (in order of emissions) pledged to reduce emissions by
a collective 44%. These five account for about one quarter of global emissions.
Read the full Proposal here
