The international community remains divided on how to distribute the costs of climate change mitigation between developed and developing nations, particularly considering the historical emissions from developed countries. This paper uses an economic experiment to investigate how information about historical emissions influences participants' willingness to pay for mitigation. A four-player game simulates two fictional countries across two generations. The first generation generates wealth but also high emissions; the second generation inherits this wealth and negotiates mitigation cost division. Results show that when the second generation is informed about the first generation's high emissions, they offer to pay more for mitigation. This suggests that providing information about historical responsibility may foster greater cooperation in international climate negotiations.

Alessandro Del Ponte, Aidas Masiliūnas, Noah Lim