Enhanced financial mechanisms for post 2012 mitigation

Despite the many calls to reform the CDM, its conceptual underpinnings are strong and it will most likely survive in the post-2012 climate regime. Some modifications may be considered in the short term to strengthen the effectiveness and transparency of the mechanism without modifying the Marrakesh Accords. In the medium term substantially increased mitigation efforts in developing countries may require a combination of three possible financial mechanisms: the current activity-based CDM albeit improved, a second market mechanism that would seek to improve the long term emission trends of developing countries by promoting broad based emission reduction programs primarily in the private sector, and a third financial mechanism outside of the market which would be an incentive for the adoption of policy changes leading to a low carbon path, but where emission reductions would not be used as international offsets.Environmental Economics&Policies,Carbon Policy and Trading,Montreal Protocol,Energy and Environment,Environment and Energy Efficiency

Three years to safeguard our climate

Christiana Figueres and colleagues set out a six-point plan for turning the tide of the world's carbon dioxide by 2020

Activities and Achievements: Progress Report 2011-2013

We joined the University of Massachusetts Boston in the fall of 2010 to develop a new doctoral program in global governance and human security, the first of its kind in the United States. In the spring of 2011, we launched the Center for Governance and Sustainability in an effort to bring academic rigor to real-world policy challenges in environment, development, and sustainability governance. The Center is housed at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, which takes pride in offering a world-class interdisciplinary education and engaging in values-driven research, demonstrating a deep commitment to making a difference in our local and global communities. Over the past two years, we have engaged in analytical and political debates ranging from the future of the architecture for global environmental governance and the development agenda beyond 2015 to the role of private actors and emerging powers in global governance writ large. Our work spans three dimensions: (1) global governance for the environment and development, (2) assessment of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) implementation, and (3) innovative governance instruments. Three think-pieces frame this report. Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the climate change convention; Gus Speth, former UNDP Administrator and Dean of Yale’s Environment School; and Alice Odingo, professor at the University of Nairobi, offer perspectives on core aspects of the Center’s mission. At the end, an at-a-glance map of people, places, and projects illustrates that within two short years, we find ourselves represented across the globe through the people we work with and the projects we advance. We look forward to engaging with you in an effort to bring about more-informed decision making and inspired scholarship across scales and geographies

Global action on climate change

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres reviewed how a low-carbon future is a trend which recognises that everyone, every nation and every sector of society holds part of the solution to solving a global problem. Listen in ful

El cambio climático es un asunto de derechos humanos y seguridad internacional. Entrevista con Christiana Figueres.

Her father started an armed revolution in the late 1940s in Costa Rica, changing the history of this Central American country forever, and giving way to one of the strongest democracies in the region. Today, the daughter of the caudillo José Figueres Ferrer, is a world leader in the face of one of the most dramatic and important battles facing humanity: global warming.Su padre gestó una revolución armada a finales de los 40 en Costa Rica, cambiando la historia de este país centroamericano para siempre, y dando paso a una de las democracias más sólidas de la región. Hoy, la hija del caudillo José Figueres Ferrer, es líder  mundial al frente de una de las batallas más dramáticas e importantes que enfrenta la humanidad: el calentamiento global. En esta carrera del ser humano contra su propia  autodestrucción, su vocación por el servicio público le impidió mantenerse al margen, dedicando así su vida a esta lucha. Recientemente, como Secretaria Ejecutiva de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático, fue una de las artífices del Acuerdo de París, en el cual el mundo alcanzó históricos entendimientos para atender esta problemática, compromisos hoy bajo ataque por polémicas figuras, como el electo presidente de los Estados Unidos Donald Trump. Catalogada como una de las mujeres más influyentes del mundo por revistas como Forbes y Times, Christiana aspiró sin éxito a ser la primera mujer en alcanzar la Secretaría General de la ONU, enfrentándose a los poderes más recalcitrantes del planeta y a un sistema multilateral que aún arrastra vicios antidemocráticos y patriarcales. “Lo imposible no es una verdad absoluta, imposible es una actitud ante la vida”, fue su lema de campaña en las Naciones Unidas. En esta entrevista doña Christiana nos cuenta cómo hacer de lo imposible una realidad alcanzable, o al menos, como dicen, morir con las botas puestas en el intento

Activities and Achievements: Progress Report 2011-2013

We joined the University of Massachusetts Boston in the fall of 2010 to develop a new doctoral program in global governance and human security, the first of its kind in the United States. In the spring of 2011, we launched the Center for Governance and Sustainability in an effort to bring academic rigor to real-world policy challenges in environment, development, and sustainability governance. The Center is housed at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, which takes pride in offering a world-class interdisciplinary education and engaging in values-driven research, demonstrating a deep commitment to making a difference in our local and global communities. Over the past two years, we have engaged in analytical and political debates ranging from the future of the architecture for global environmental governance and the development agenda beyond 2015 to the role of private actors and emerging powers in global governance writ large. Our work spans three dimensions: (1) global governance for the environment and development, (2) assessment of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) implementation, and (3) innovative governance instruments. Three think-pieces frame this report. Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the climate change convention; Gus Speth, former UNDP Administrator and Dean of Yale’s Environment School; and Alice Odingo, professor at the University of Nairobi, offer perspectives on core aspects of the Center’s mission. At the end, an at-a-glance map of people, places, and projects illustrates that within two short years, we find ourselves represented across the globe through the people we work with and the projects we advance. We look forward to engaging with you in an effort to bring about more-informed decision making and inspired scholarship across scales and geographies