Responsabilità comune e differenziata nel riscaldamento globale

[Autom. eng. transl.] The implementation of the common but differentiated liability principle in relation to global warming is very complex. The first binding protocol concretizes this principle with reference to the greenhouse gas emissions produced in a country in a given year. However, the responsibility of each country should be assessed considering the emissions produced globally, therefore taking into account the accumulation of emissions attributable to the country, given the long permanence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere; consumption-related emissions in the country, regardless of where the goods consumed are produced; of the different demographic weight, as the share of emissions assignable to a country should be in relation to the share of the population. However, regardless of how emissions are accounted for, tackling global warming by focusing only on emissions may not be enough. Past experience shows that reductions in emissions in individual countries can be achieved thanks to the relocation of production and due to the effects of recessive phenomena. In the first case, there would be no reduction in total emissions; in the second case, the problem of global warming would reappear in its drama, having overcome the recession. For this reason it is of particular importance that the negotiation in the next COPs does not concern limits on emissions, but standards of energy efficiency and carbon intensity, even with a differentiation of responsibilities. The most advanced economies, equipped with greater technological knowledge, the huge financial instruments necessary to support the energy transition, institutions capable of promoting energy efficiency and reducing carbon intensity, could be an example, guide and support for the less advanced economies, so as to reach the SDGs together avoiding the trade off between objectives that too often occurred in the past and that even the current pandemic continues to confirm.