Climate Solutions: Chapter 14

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Published: June 16, 2010, 6:35 pm
Updated: May 7, 2012, 11:50 am
Author: Leo Wiegman
Author: David Blockstein
Topic Editor: Peter Saundry
Topics:

What Makes a Good Climate Agreement?

We need an expanded approach to collaboratively accelerate the widespread adoption of clean-energy and climate-friendly technologies. —Heiligendamm G8 Summit Declaration, June 7, 2007 There is no current belief that humans can control such [climate] changes once they are forced. [5] —Ralph Cicerone, President, National Academy of Sciences, 2000

Integrating the elements discussed above into an actual international agreement, decision makers must consider environmental effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, feasibility, and equity. Essential elements of an agreement include targets (e.g., for emissions with a cap and trade system), agreements among economic sectors (e.g., manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, resource extraction, power generation), coordinated monitoring (e.g., transparency and reliability of data), technological cooperation, development actions, financial mechanisms, and capacity building. To date, these elements have been subject to the preferences of individual countries, another reason the Kyoto Protocol results have been so ragged. For example, the United States appeared to accept a domestic emission target but oppose an international target; China is a fan of technology transfer between nations but dislikes the idea of setting a cap; Japan is a proponent of technology research and favors adaptation measures; and so on. All countries seem to favor encouraging the development of adaptation measures. But these adaptation elements alone are not enough. Mitigation is essential on top of adaptation to climate change|adaptation]]. Aggressive international agreements for emissions reductions are indispensable in avoiding added atmospheric warming beyond the minimum of two degrees we appear to have locked in to date.

Table 14.9 Elements for More Successful Climate Change Agreements
A number of elements are commonly incorporated in existing—and proposals for new—international climate change agreements. These include the following.*
Goals Most agreements establish objectives that implementation is supposed to achieve. In the climate context, a variety of goals have been proposed, including those related to emissions reductions, stabilization of GHG concentrations, avoidance of “dangerous” interference with climate, technology transfer, and sustainable development. Goals can be set at varying degrees of specificity.
Participation All agreements are undertaken between specific groups of participants. Some have a global scope while others focus on a more limited set of parties (e.g., regional in nature or limited to arrangements between private-sector partners). Obligations can be uniform across participants or differentiated among them.
Actions All agreements call for some form of action. Actions vary widely and can include national caps or targets on emissions, standards for certain sectors of the economy, financial payments and transfers, technology development, specific programs for adaptation, and reporting and monitoring. The actions can be implicitly or explicitly designed to support sustainable development. The timing for actions varies considerably, from those taking effect immediately to those that may take effect only over the longer term; actions may be taken internally (within contracting parties) or with others (with nonparties as well as nonstate actors).
Institutions and compliance provisions Many agreements contain provisions for establishing and maintaining supporting institutions. These perform tasks as varied as serving as repositories for specific, agreement-related data; facilitating or adjudicating compliance; serving as clearinghouses for market transactions or information flows; and managing financial arrangements. In addition, most agreements have provisions in case of noncompliance. These include binding and nonbinding consequences and may be facilitative or more coercive in nature.
Other elements Many (although not all) agreements contain additional elements, including, for example, “principles” and other preambular language. These can serve to provide context and guidance for operational elements, although they may be points of contention during negotiations. In addition, many agreements contain provisions for evaluating progress—with timetables for reviewing the adequacy of efforts and evaluating whether they need to be augmented or modified.
*While not an element of agreements, specific information as to the time for initiating actions and, often, a date by which actions are to be completed is often contained in agreements. In addition, many agreements contain provisions for evaluating progress—with a timetable for reviewing the adequacy of efforts and evaluating whether they need to be augmented or modified.
Table Source: [10]

Online figure

Figure 14.3 European Union greenhouse gas emission trends and projections versus the United States and JapanThe 27 nations comprising the European Union have leveled their greenhouse gas emissions. Can they keep doing so? Europe as a whole has clearly succeeded where the United States has not, in leveling off overall greenhouse gas emissions. The 15 original members of the EU (the EU-15) have a Kyoto target of an 8% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with base-year levels (mostly 1990) by 2008–2012. Compared with base-year levels, an overall reduction of 2.0% was achieved. EU-27 emissions saw a similar decrease compared with 2004 levels and in 2005 were 11% below the base-year levels. Note: NMS indicates new member states in the EU, largely eastern developing economies from the former Soviet bloc (such as the “economies in transition” states found in Figure 14.2). Source: [8]

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Online resources

Action items

  • Action 22: Availability of Technology to Mitigate Climate Change
  • Action 33: Diverse Perspectives on Climate Change Education?— Integrating Across Boundaries
  • Action 34: Building People’s Capacities for Implementing Mitigation and Adaptation Actions

Instructor resources

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This is a chapter from Climate Solutions Consensus.
Previous: Chapter 13: Where the Science, Policy, and Public Meet (Climate Solutions: Chapter 14)|Table of Contents (Climate Solutions: Chapter 14)|Next: Chapter 15: All of the Above! Solutions in Perspective (Climate Solutions: Chapter 14)

Citation

Wiegman, L., & Blockstein, D. (2012). Climate Solutions: Chapter 14. Retrieved from http://editors.eol.org/eoearth/wiki/Climate_Solutions:_Chapter_14
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