International Support of Climate Change Policies in Developing Countries: Strategic, Moral and Fairness Aspects

Abstract

<br /> International transfers in climate policy channeled from the industrialized to the developing<br /> world either support the mitigation of climate change or the adaptation to global warming.<br /> From an allocative efficiency point of view, transfers supporting mitigation tend to be Pareto-improving<br /> whereas this is not very likely in the case of adaptation support. We illustrate this<br /> by regarding transfer schemes currently applied under the UN Framework Convention on<br /> Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto framework.<br /> However, if we enrich the analysis by integrating distributional aspects, we find that<br /> international adaptation funding may help both developing and developed world. Interestingly<br /> this is not due to altruistic incentives, but due to follow-up effects on international<br /> negotiations on climate change mitigation. We argue that the lack of fairness perceived by<br /> developing countries in the international climate policy arena can be reduced by the support<br /> of adaptation in these countries. As we show – taking into account different fairness concepts<br /> – this might raise the prospects of success in international negotiations on climate change.<br /> Yet, we find that the influence of transfers may induce different fairness effects on climate<br /> change mitigation negotiations to run counter.<br /> We discuss whether current transfer schemes under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto framework<br /> adequately serve the distributive and allocative objectives pursued in international climate<br /> policy.<br />adaptation, climate change, fairness, Global Environmental Facility, international climate policy, mitigation, reciprocity, transfers