Abstract: Long-term climate change mitigation target would highly constrain global carbon emissions in the future. Carbon permit allocation under the long-term mitigation target would impact development space for all countries, involving the fundamental interests. Some developed countries advocate the principle of per capita emission convergence while China and other developing countries propose the principle of convergence of cumulative emission per capita to consider historical responsibility. If the latter is used for carbon permit allocation, CO2 emissions of developed countries since the industrial revolution have far exceeded their allocated permits. Developed countries’ high per capita emissions at present and for quite a long period in the future would continue to occupy emission spaces for developing countries. Therefore, developed countries must commit to deeper emission reduction for the next commitment period at the Copenhagen conference, in order to achieve the emission pathway under the long-term emission reduction target, and to save necessary development space for developing countries. At the same time, developing countries must be enabled with adequate financial and technical support by developed countries as compensation for their excessive occupation of the development space for developing countries, to improve developing countries’ capacity to cope with climate change under the framework of sustainable development. On the one hand, we should uphold on the principle of equity to ensure reasonable emission space for our country (China) in the international climate change negotiation; while on the other hand, we should enhance development toward low-carbon economy to protect global environment and to achieve sustainable development.

Key words: climate change, carbon permit allocation, long term mitigation target, accumulative emission per capita, Copenhagen conference