The Global Development of Policy Regimes to Combat Climate Change

The year 2015 will be a landmark year for international climate change negotiations. Governments have agreed to adopt a universal legal agreement on climate change at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris in 2015. The agreement will come into force no later than 2020.

This book focuses on the prospects for global agreement, how to encourage compliance with any such agreement and perspectives of key players in the negotiations — the United States, India, China, and the EU. It finds that there is strong commitment to the established UN institutions and processes within which the search for further agreed actions will occur. There are already a myriad of local and regional policies that are helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build mutual confidence. However, the chapters in the book also highlight potential areas of discord. For instance, varying interpretations of the “common but differentiated responsibilities” of developing countries, agreed as part of the UNFCCC, could be a major sticking point for negotiators. When combined with other issues, such as the choice of consumption or production as the basis for mitigation commitments, the appropriate time frame and base date for their measurement and whether level or intensity commitments are to be negotiated, the challenges that need to be overcome are considerable. The authors bring to bear insights from economics, public finance and game theory.

Contents:

• Introduction (Alex Bowen, Nicholas Stern and John Whalley)
• Global Cooperation and Understanding to Accelerate Climate Action (James Rydge and Samuela Bassi)
• The US and Action on Climate Change (Samuela Bassi and Alex Bowen)
• Challenges and Reality: China's Dilemma on Durban Platform Negotiation (Mou Wang, Huishan Lian and Yamin Zhou)
• Sustainable Growth and Climate Change: Evolution of India's Strategies (Ruth Kattumuri and Darshini Ravindranath)
• After Copenhagen and the Economic Crisis: Does the EU Need to Go Back to the Drawing Board? (Christian Egenhofer and Monica Alessi)
• The Scope for “Green Growth” and a New Technological Revolution (Alex Bowen)
• Negotiating to Avoid “Dangerous” Climate Change (Scott Barrett)
• Unilateral Measures and Emissions Mitigation (Shurojit Chatterji, Sayantan Ghosal, Sean Walsh and John Whalley)
• Compliance Mechanisms in Global Climate Regimes: Kyoto and Post-Kyoto (Sean Walsh and John Whalley)

Readership: students and researchers in developmental economics and climate change; policy makers and decision makers; general public interested in climate change issues.
Key Features:

• Timely and relevant for climate policy negotiators in the run-up to COP21 in Paris at the end of 2015
• Written by authors who have strong backgrounds in economics, both theoretical (e.g. game theory) and empirical (e.g. climate policy evaluation)