The Climate Equity Reference Calculator is a general online equity reference tool and database that systematically applies a generalized and transparent equity reference framework with the goal of quantitatively examining the problem of national fair shares in a global effort to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It can be applied using a range of possible assumptions, and whatever values are chosen, they are applied to all countries, in a dynamic fashion that reflects the changing global economy.
The Calculator is designed to allow the user to specify their own preferred interpretation of national responsibility and capability for climate action. This interpretation is then used, together with standard demographic and macroeconomic indicators, to determine each country’s implied fair share of the global mitigation effort. The Calculator is designed to be quite flexible — as is immediately visible from the options presented in their “Equity Settings” greeting pages, and the further options available within the Calculator’s Settings panel. The goal is to support a wide range of plausibly legitimate interpretations of the Convention’s core equity principles.
More Information
How to cite
If you are using the calculator in any publications, we suggest to cite our paper in the Journal of Open Source Software: Holz, Christian, Eric Kemp-Benedict, Tom Athanasiou and Sivan Kartha (2019) “The Climate Equity Reference Calculator” in Journal of Open Source Software, 4 (35), 1273. DOI:10.21105/joss.01273
Alternatively, if you want to cite the calculator directly, we suggest: Kemp-Benedict, Eric, Christian Holz, Paul Baer, Tom Athanaisou, and Sivan Kartha (2019) The Climate Equity Reference Calculator. Berkeley and Somerville: Climate Equity Reference Project (EcoEquity and Stockholm Environment Institute), [Online]. Available: https://calculator.climateequityreference.org
Glossary
The Climate Equity Reference Framework
- About the Climate Equity Reference Project Effort-sharing Approach
- Comparable Effort in a Low Ambition World
- The Climate Equity Reference Project approach to Equity Benchmarking
NDC/INDC Assessment
- National NDC/INDC Assessments
- National Fair Shares: The Mitigation Gap – Domestic Actions & International Support
More Technical Information
- Three salient global mitigation pathways, assessed in light of the IPCC carbon budgets
- Definition, sourcing, and updating of the emissions baselines
- The Climate Equity Reference Calculator database
- The disaggregation of the EU pledges
- The deeper technical documentation
Credits
The Calculator was originally developed by Tom Athanasiou & Paul Baer of EcoEquity and Sivan Kartha & Eric Kemp-Benedict of the Stockholm Environment Institute, who also developed a specific effort-sharing approach, the Greenhouse Development Rights framework (which has since been generalized into the Climate Equity Reference framework. Most of the initial Calculator programming was also done by Eric, with the assistance of Douglas Wang. Tyler Kemp-Benedict did most of the user-interface design and implementation. For the last few years, since 2015, Christian Holz has been the principle programmer of the Calculator and maintainer of the code base.
Disclaimer
We are continually developing the Climate Equity Reference Calculator, and often make changes to the underlying database. Please check with us before using the outputs in a publication to ensure that you are using the most recent stable version. And do send feedback or bug reports.
Acknowledgements
The main funding for the calculator has over the year mainly come from the Stockholm Environment Institute, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Christian Aid and the Minor Foundation for Major Challenges.
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