Fairness in CO2 removal is essential for just climate action (IMAGE)
Caption
The share of countries in a limited budget for removing CO2 from the atmosphere is massively skewed in an unfair world (right) compared to a fair world (left). In the example scenario shown, in the unfair case, an equal removal amount per person is only achieved in the final year of the modeling period, and Richland exploits its economic dominance by claiming an excessive budget. As a result, its share almost doubles (from 33 to 63 percent), whilst Poorland’s share is halved (from 33 to 16 percent) and the shares of the other countries also suffer.
Credit
University of Graz/Wegener Center of Climate and Global Change
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Royalty-free use of the image, with mention of the copyright, only for editorial use in connection with the publication by Gottfried Kirchengast and Julia Danzer "Bringing fairness into carbon removal shares of countries is essential for a just transition". Global Environmental Change, February 2026
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Original content