Emissions Trading Regimes and Incentives to Participate in International Climate Agreements

This paper analyses whether different emissions trading regimes provide different incentives to participate in a cooperative climate agreement. Different incentive structures are discussed for those countries, namely the US, Russia and China, that are most important in the climate negotiation process. Our analysis confirms the conjecture that, by appropriately designing the emission trading regime, it is possible to enhance the incentives to participate in a climate agreement. Therefore, participation and optimal policy should be jointly analysed. Moreover, our results show that the US, Russia and China have different most preferred climate coalitions and therefore adopt conflicting negotiation strategies.Agreements, Climate, Incentives, Negotiations, Policy

Building capacity in climate change policy analysis and negotiation: methods and technologies

Capacity building is often cited as the reason “we cannot just pour money into developing countries” and why so many development projects fail because their design does not address local conditions. It is therefore a key technical and political concept in international development. Some of the poorest countries in the world are also some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Their vulnerability is in part due to a lack of capacity to plan and anticipate the effects of climate change on crops, water resources, urban electricity demand etc. What capacities do these countries lack to deal with climate change? How will they cope? What steps can they take to reduce their vulnerability? This innovative and high-profile research project was part of a larger project (called C3D) and conducted with non-governmental organisations in Senegal, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The research involved several participatory workshops and a questionnaire to all three research centres

Towards a sustainable development of the chinese economy: Accomplishments and challenges in limiting greenhouse gas emissions

This is an invited discussion on the Ye, Jin and Liu’s paper “Analysis of Advantages and Disadvantages of Implementation of AIJ for China”. It focuses on five issues or questions: the subject of the paper, China’s concerns about clean development mechanism, what China has done so far in limiting its carbon emissions, what can be expected from China at the international climate change negotiations subsequent to Buenos Aires, and whether combating global climate change is in China’s interest.Activities imple¬mented jointly; Energy conservation; Clean development mechanism; International climate change negotiations; China's negotiation positions

Self-Enforcing Climate Change Treaties: A Generalized Differential Game Approach with Applications

Based on recent proposals on non cooperative dynamic games for analysing climate negotiation outcomes, such as Dutta and Radner (2004, 2006a), we generalize a specific framework for modelling differential games of this type and describe the set of conditions for the existence of closed loop dynamics and its relation to adaptive evolutionary dynamics. We then show that the Dutta and Radner (2004, 2006a) discrete time dynamic setup is a specific case of that generalization and describe the dynamics both analytically and numerically for closed loop feedback and perfect state patterns. Our discussion is completed with the introduction of a cooperative differential framework for welfare analysis purposes, within our non cooperative proposal for climate negotiations.Differential Game Theory, Environmental Economics, Evolutionary Dynamics, Climate Change Treaties

Qualitative analysis of academic group and discussion forum on Facebook

In the present study, data was triangulated and two methods of data analysis were used. Qualitative analysis was undertaken of free-text data from students’ reflective essaysto extract socially-related themes. Heuristic evaluation was conducted by expert evaluators, who investigated forum contributions and discourse in line with contemporary learning theory and considered the social\ud culture of participation. Findings of the qualitative analysis of students’ perceptions and results of the\ud heuristic evaluation of forum participation confirmed each other, indicating a warm social climate and a conducive, well-facilitated environment that supported individual styles of participation. It fostered interpersonal relationships between distance learners, as well as study-related benefits enhanced by peer teaching and insights acquired in a culture of social negotiation. The environment was effectively moderated, while supporting student-initiative.\u

How Can Non-State Initiatives Help to Increase National Contributions under the UNFCCC?

The international governance landscape on climate change mitigation is increasingly complex across multiple governance levels. Climate change mitigation initiatives by non-state stakeholders can play an important role in governing global climate change and contribute to avoiding unmanageable climate change. It has been argued that the UNFCCC could and should play a stronger role in ‘orchestrating’ the efforts of these initiatives within the wider climate regime complex and thus inspire new and enhanced climate action. In fact, the Lima-Paris Action Agenda supporting cooperative climate action among state and non-state actors was supposed to be a major outcome of COP21. There is little doubt that successful mitigation initiatives can create a momentum for climate protection. What is missing, is a systematic analysis of how this momentum can feed back into the UNFCCC negotiation process, inspiring also enhanced and more ambitious climate mitigation by states in future iterations of the cycle of nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. This paper aims to close this gap: building on a structurational regime model, the article [1] develops a theory of change of how and through which structuration channels non-state initiatives can contribute to changing the politics of international climate policy; [2] traces existing UNFCCC processes and the Paris Agreement with a view to identifying entry points for a more direct feedback from non-state initiatives; and [3] derives recommendations on how and under which agenda items positive experiences can resonate within the UNFCCC negotiation process

The more the merrier? Assessing the impact of enlargement on European energy and climate change policies

This article examines the impact of enlargement on European Union performance in energy and climate change policies. It looks at process-driven performance, focusing on agenda-setting, negotiation dynamics and institutional change – as well as outcome-driven performance, looking at the ambitiousness of policy objectives and their implementation. The empirical analysis is based on qualitative, comparative case studies of EU climate change and energy security policies. The article shows that enlargement has had a nuanced but contrasted impact on the two areas. It also points to the recent assertiveness of Central and Eastern European Countries in both energy security and climate policy

Reform of the EU Institutions: Implications for the EU’s Performance in Climate Negotiations. CEPS Policy Brief No. 40, September 2003

This CEPS Policy Brief assesses the potential impact of the draft Constitutional Treaty of the Convention on the Future of Europe on the way the EU operates in international climate negotiations. Although Treaty revisions in the EU are ultimately decided by the EU member states, the Convention’s draft can be seen as an important blueprint that forms the starting point of the negotiations between the member states due to start in October 2003. Among the relevant issues that the authors identify are: A change in the number and form of the Council of Ministers formations. There is a chance that the Environment Council as it exists today will be changed, since most of its agenda – the adoption of legislation – will be transferred to the proposed Legislative Council. The transfer of remaining issues such as decision-making on multilateral environmental agreements to the Foreign Affairs Council or to an ‘Internal Market Council’ might offer some new perspectives, but it might also lead to a loss of environmental knowledge; The establishment of a Union Minister of Foreign Affairs (with a European External Action Service). Involvement of the Foreign Minister could offer an opportunity for more integration of foreign policy aspects in the EU’s position for climate change negotiations; Changes regarding the rotating Presidency. Currently the rotating Presidency has an important role in both preparing and negotiating the EU’s position in the climate negotiations. The proposal of a longer-term chair of the Council of Ministers (at least one year) is likely to increase the consistency of EU negotiation positions; More transparent procedures on how the Council of Ministers nominates the negotiator or leader of the Union’s negotiating team (Art III-227). The paper concludes that the Convention’s draft Constitution offers some interesting proposals that could lead to more integration of the broader range of external policies into the EU’s position for climate negotiations. Furthermore, there might be improvements related to the consistency of the EU’s position

Climate change in game theory context

The aim of this paper is to survey the game theory modelling of the behaviour of global players in mitigation and adaptation related to climate change. Three main fields are applied for the specific aspects of temperature rise: behaviour games, CPR problem and negotiation games. The game theory instruments are useful in analyzing strategies in uncertain circumstances, such as the occurrence and impacts of climate change. To analyze the international players’ relations, actions, attitude toward carbon emission, negotiation power and motives, several games are applied for the climate change in this paper. The solution is surveyed, too, for externality problem

(Don’t) be ashamed during take-off and landing: negotiations of flight shame in the Norwegian public debate

This article examines the rhetorical use, function, and public value of appeals to shame and guilt in the climate change debate. It does so through rhetorical criticism of opinion articles discussing flight shame published in Norwegian newspapers 2019–2020. The opinion articles partake in a rhetorical exchange in which the legitimacy of air travel, responsibility for mitigation efforts, and acceptability of appeals to shame and guilt are negotiated. This article examines how this negotiation happens rhetorically through argumentation and appeals to certain values and discusses how appeals to flight shame facilitate deliberation on climate change mitigation. The analysis finds that appeals to flight shame are often interpreted as attacks on “ordinary” people living in rural areas and responded to with accusations of elitist behaviour and moralising, and arguments that reframe flying as an acceptable social practice. Thus, the rhetorical use of shame can increase polarization and obstruct much-needed cooperation in tackling the challenges of climate change. However, the debate also constitutes a rhetorical examination and negotiation of issues of culpability and responsibility that invites the audience of the debate to reconsider their travel habits in relation to the issue of climate change and questions about moral responsibility and solidarity.publishedVersio