ABSTRACT
This chapter clarifies the concept of climate debt and assesses its value for conceptualizing responsibilities associated with global climate change and for guiding international climate negotiations. It explicates each of the propositions and examines whether they are individually or jointly vulnerable to the incoherence or implausibility arguments. The chapter the climate debt frame highlights considerations that must be given significant weight in any fair agreement on climate-related responsibilities. It provides a political analysis of climate debt arguments. The theoretical roots of the concept of climate debt can largely be traced back to broader themes such as the global distribution of ecological resources and the allocation of responsibilities for addressing environmental harms. The concept of a global 'carbon budget' is being used increasingly in scientific and policy analysis for quantifying the maximum level of cumulative global emissions that is permissible over time to avoid dangerous climate change.
