Iceland's fair share. Estimating Iceland's fair share of the emissions gap and the global carbon budget.

• Main Author: Aðalbjörg Egilsdóttir 1996-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Umhverfis- og auðlindafræði; Halda; Lönd; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/44518

One of the largest issues today is climate change. The countries that bear the biggest responsibility of the climate crisis, due to their high historic greenhouse gas emissions, are mostly situated in the Global North. International treaties emphasize common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, i.e. that those that bear greater responsibility for the global crisis should also bear greater responsibility for global mitigation and adaptation to climate change, along with those that have the capabilities to do so. However, the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, to keep global warming as close to 1.5°C as possible, as stated in the Paris Agreement, have not been allocated between countries, and emissions continue to rise. The purpose of this thesis is to estimate Iceland’s, a rich country with high historic emissions, fair share of the 2030 and 2040 emissions gaps and its fair share of the remaining global carbon budget. The methods used were based on historical responsibility of emissions and financial capabilities. Results differ between the two analyses, giving Iceland more flexibility when considering its fair share of the emissions gaps, allowing for 31% of expected emissions in 2040 when including LULUCF emissions, but carbon negative if excluding LULUCF emissions. Iceland’s fair share of the global carbon budget, however, gives the country a negative emissions budget from 2021 onwards, by at least current emissions for a number of years. These results show that ambition regarding greenhouse gas mitigation needs to be ramped up substantially in Iceland, should the country have a chance at doing its fair share in global mitigation of climate change. Ein stærsta áskorun okkar í tíma eru loftslagsbreytingar. Löndin sem bera mesta ábyrgð á loftslagsvánni, vegna mikillar sögulegrar losunar á gróðurhúsalofttegundum, eru aðallega þróuð iðnríki á norðurhveli jarðar. Alþjóðlegir samningar leggja áherslu á sameiginlega en ólíka ábyrgð og mismikla getu, þ.e. að þau lönd sem ...