Article by Igor Makarov and Sedat Alataş in "International Organisations Research Journal"

Igor Makarov, Laboratory's Head, and Sedat Alataş, Research Fellow at Aydın Adnan Menderes University, have published an article "Towards consumption-based emissions accounting: From calculation to policymaking" in "International Organisations Research Journal".

The authors considered the specifics of the implementation into practice of consumption-based emissions accounting.

The key conclusions of the paper:

1. Consumption-based accounting (CBA) along with production-based accounting (PBA) provides a more complete picture of each country's contribution to climate change and allows for more comprehensive solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

2. Regular collection and disclosure of information on consumption-based emissions (along with production-based ones) and their gradual inclusion in the process of setting emission reduction targets:

• allows to reconsider the differentiation of responsibility for emissions between countries;
• prevents carbon leakage and highlights the need for international climate cooperation between exporters and importers of carbon-intensive goods
• expands the scope of emissions that can be covered by carbon regulation 
• enables countries to use a wider range of decarbonisation tools, including those that simultaneously contribute to addressing inequalities

3. The PBA to emissions accounting has existed for more than three decades; institutional inertia makes it difficult to introduce any significant adjustments to it. One important problem is that importers of emissions embodied in trade are numerous while large exporters include only a small number of large emerging economies. For instance, total net emissions exports of five BRICS countries are nearly equal to total net emissions imports of 38 OECD countries. 

4. BRICS may be a platform for the introduction of consumption-based emissions accounting to the edge of the political agenda. At the first stage, five BRICS countries may agree on the calculation of consumption-based emissions on a regular basis and based on a single methodology recognized by all of them. At the second stage, targets for consumption-based emissions reduction may be set for the future, along with production-based emissions, on a non-binding basis in addition to the climate targets within NDCs. At the third stage, after CBE accounting becomes a part of the target-setting process, more active dialogue may be held on the policy instruments to reduce CBE along with the involvement of BRICS+ countries and other representatives of the Global South. After that, in a bottom-to-up manner, discussion of consumption-based emissions may penetrate to UN climate negotiations process. 

The full text of an article is available here.