'Play fair' on carbon calculation

Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) should be calculated on a per capita basis since 1900 to ensure fair play as nations strive to halve global emissions by 2050, Chinese scientists said yesterday.

Speaking at a workshop at the UN climate change summit in Poland, He Jiankun, a professor from Tsinghua University, said that developed countries, which are home to just 20 percent of the world's population, have contributed 75 percent of all global GHGs emissions since the Industrial Revolution, according to the website of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Cumulative carbon dioxide emissions should be calculated on a per capita basis for each country, so that every nation can shoulder a common but differentiated responsibility for climate change, he said.