The international framework for a climate change agreement is up for review as the initial Kyoto period to 2012 comes to an end. Though there has been much enthusiasm from political and environmental groups, the underlying economics and politics remain highly controversial. This book takes a cool headed look at the critical roadblocks to agreement, examining the economics of climate change, the incentives of the main players (the US, EU, China) and examines the policies governments can put in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and ultimately shift our economies onto a low-carbon path.
The volume brings together leading climate change policy experts to set out the economic analysis and the nature of the negotiations at Copenhagen and beyond. In addition to reviewing the main issues discussed above, a number of the articles question the basis of much of the climate change consensus, and debate the Stern Report's main findings.
The book is in four parts. Following an overview of the main issues, the first part is a reassessment of the economics of climate change. This is fundamental to the rest of the volume, and it contains new material which goes well beyond what might be called the new conventional wisdom. The second part looks at the geography of the costs and benefits of climate change - the very different perspectives of Africa, China, the US and Europe. These chapters provide a building block to considering the prospects for a new global agreement - the very different interests that will have to be reconciled at Copenhagen and beyond. The third part looks at policy instruments at the global level (whereas much of the literature to date is nationally and regionally based). Trading and R&D feature in the chapters, but so too do more radical unilateral options, including geo-engineering. Part four turns to the institutional architecture - drawing on evidence from previous attempts in other areas, as well as proposals for new bodies.
1. Introduction , Dieter Helm and Cameron Hepburn
Part One: Revisiting the Economics of Climate Change
2. Climate-change policy: why has so little been achieved? , Dieter Helm
3. The global deal on climate change , Cameron Hepburn and Nicholas Stern
4. Climate treaties and the imperative of enforcement , Scott Barrett
5. The implications of rapid development for climate-change mitigation , Ross Garnaut, Stephen Howes, Frank Jotzo and Peter Sheehan
6. The behavioural economics of climate change , Kjell Arne Brekke and Olof Johansson-Stenman
Part Two: The Global Players and Agreements
7. Climate change and Africa , Paul Collier, Gordon Conway and Anthony Venables
8. China's balance of emissions embodied in trade: approaches to measurement and allocating international responsibility , Jiahua Pan, Jonathan Phillips and Ying Chen
9. India and climate-change mitigation , Vijay Joshi and Urjit R. Patel
10. Addressing climate change with a comprehensive US cap-and-trade system , Robert N. Stavins
11. EU climate-change policy: a critique , Dieter Helm
Part Three: Low-carbon Technologies
12. Nuclear power, climate change, and energy policy , Dieter Helm
13. Carbon dioxide capture and storage , Howard Herzog
14. RClimate-change mitigation from renewable energy: its contribution and cost , Richard Green
15. The national inventory approach for international forest-carbon sequestration management , Krister Andersson, Andrew J. Plantinga, and Kenneth R. Richards
16. On the Regulation of Geoengineering , David G. Victor
17. Improving energy efficiency: hidden costs and unintended consequences , Steven Sorrell
Part Four: National and International Instruments
18. Carbon taxes, emissions trading and hybrid schemes , Cameron Hepburn
19. Docking into a global carbon market: Clean Investment Budgets to finance low-carbon economic development , Gernot Wagner, Nathaniel Keohane, Annie Petsonk, and James Wang
20. International carbon finance and the Clean Development Mechanism , Cameron Hepburn
Part Five: Institutional Architecture
21. The global climate-change regime: a defence , Joanna Depledge and Farhana Yamin
22. Governing climate change: lessons from other governance regimes , Arunabha Ghosh and Ngaire Woods
Bibliography
Dieter Helm is Fellow and Tutor in Economics, New College, University of Oxford.
Cameron Hepburn is Senior Research Fellow, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford.