A major factor in the reluctance of countries to make commitments to a low-carbon economy is fear that change will be costly and that others will hold back. Moving attention from national per capita values of CO2 emissions to the emissions of individuals provides an important tool for dealing with the decarbonization transition. Individual CO2 emissions are very unequally distributed not only across countries but also within countries, researchers at the Princeton Environmental Institute say. The allocation problem takes on important new dimensions when the focus shifts in this way from “high emitting” nations to “high emitting” individuals