Utilitarian benchmarks for emissions and pledges promote equity, climate and development.

Area of Science:

• Climate economics
• Environmental policy
• Ethical frameworks

Background:

• Standard economic models for carbon emissions lack equity considerations.
• Existing equity benchmarks often employ opaque methodologies.
• There is a need for transparent and fair tools to assess climate pledges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a transparent utilitarian benchmark for evaluating carbon emissions and pledges.
• To inform the debate on climate equity benchmarks.
• To calculate optimal future emissions allocation using a utilitarian framework.

Main Methods:

• Development of a transparent utilitarian optimization framework.
• Implementation of the utilitarian benchmark in two leading climate-economy models.
• Comparison of utilitarian optimal emissions with historical data and nationally determined contributions.

Main Results:

• Utilitarian optimization yields better outcomes for human development, equity, and the climate compared to cost minimization.
• Peak global temperature is reduced under utilitarianism due to lower human development costs for mitigation.
• The proposed benchmark provides a clear calculation of optimal future emissions allocation.

Conclusions:

• The utilitarian benchmark is ethically minimal, conceptually parsimonious, and transparent.
• It offers a promising addition to benchmarks for exploring climate equity.
• This approach can guide more equitable and effective climate mitigation strategies.