As repeatedly acknowledged since the ratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, the equitable allocation of climate burden among parties is at the heart of climate negotiations. But while equity principles have been extensively addressed in the literature on climate policy, their fundamental underlying values remain elusive. Drawing on anthropology and relational models theory, this Perspective paper aims to shed light on this topic by showing that any climate equity principle corresponds to one of the four relational models people in all cultures use to implement their exchanges – and thus corresponds to their associated principles of distributive justice. Such a clarification may facilitate academic research on this topic, as well as the definition, the acceptance and, finally, the effective implementation of climate policies.