GERA , an option for sustainable development planning of GHGs Emissions Reduction Allocation

Climate change phenomenon can be seen as a simple but daunting problem. Lack of equity in emission reduction burden sharing regime, will cause a need for a greater sacrifice for poor orless developed countries. Thus, evaluation of different aspects of equity at a national scale and presenting a top-down model of equity for allocationof GHGs emission (such as GERA) in line with sustainable development is the main objective of this study. In this study, the five equity principles proposed in the literature namely: (1) population distribution, (2) GHGs emissions, (3) GDP, (4) trend of economic growth and (5) per capita of carbon productivity as appropriate criteria of equity estimation. Due to the different decision makers' preferences, different weights are allocated to indicators and analysed. Iran has been considered as a case study and these criteria were applied at national level to propose an allowance allocation scheme. The result of applying GERA for Iran, at provincial level and under the five equity criteria, determines which provinces have to shoulder higher reduction burdens, and make a room for less developed provinces for growth. Based on these results, this model demonstrated to be more sensitive to criteria selection rather than to the weight factors. In addition, shifting to low carbon technologies or renewables, careful evaluation of current emission-income pattern, improving of energy intensity and finally, adjustment of secondaryindustries (manufacturing) based on ecological and natural resources of each region are suggested as the most efficient approaches toward sustainability and green development for the case study.

Keywords:

Climate Change , GHG Emissions , Equity , Development Model , Iran