Using a choice experiment, we investigated preferences for distributing the economicburden of decreasing CO2 emissions in the two largest CO2-emitting countries: the UnitedStates and China. We asked respondents about their preferences for four burden-sharing rulesto reduce CO2 emissions according to their country’s 1) historical emissions, 2) income level,3) equal right to emit per person, and 4) current emissions. We found that U.S. respondentspreferred the rule based on current emissions, while the equal right to emit rule was clearlyleast preferred. The Chinese respondents, on the other hand, preferred the historical rule,while the current emissions rule was the least preferred. Respondents overall favored the rulethat was least costly for their country. These marked differences may explain the difficultiescountries face in agreeing how to share costs, presenting a tough hurdle to overcome in futurenegotiations. We also found that the strength of the preferences was much stronger in China,suggesting that how mitigation costs are shared across countries is more important there.
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