There are two kinds of targets. There are the scientific targets, which tell us, as a world, that we need to put forward a certain degree of effort or we will get beyond a 2% increase in global temperatures because of greenhouse gas emissions. So one set of targets is based on the science and tells us, as a world, what we have to do.
Another set of targets says common but differentiated responsibilities based, first of all, on historical record. That is what various countries have built their wealth on over time. We, and the industrialized world--Britain, Germany, United States--live off the riches of an economy created by greenhouse gas emissions, and we can't neglect that heritage. We did it. We've been polluting and we haven't been paying for it.
There is also a per capita component. As the Indians say, “We promise we will never emit more per capita than you do”, which is not much of a promise when you think about it.
So there's the historical component, which I think is fair, because there's a burden that we've developed over time, and there's a per capita component, which says, why should some citizens of the planet never get to the same stage of development as we are? Now that we're here, we're going to pull up the drawbridge; you can't develop.
Those are the three components: the scientific targets that need to get us where we are going to be; the historical components, which remind us of how we got to be rich in the west; and then the per capita components, which deal with the consequences, particularly as we think about equity, for those countries that are being side-swiped by climate change--the low-lying island states, for example.
Those would be the considerations that a government would have to take into account in establishing its targets. That's why the words “consideration of” are there. It simply sets out some principles of equity and allows the government of the day to make its best judgment, given competitive considerations and where other countries are.