Environment & Climate Change

Managing the dangers of global climate change will require developing countries to participate in a global climate regime. So far, however, those nations have been nearly universal in their refusal to make commitments to reduce growth in their greenhouse gas emissions. This paper describes how a set of international "Climate Accession Deals" could encourage large policy shifts that are in developing countries' interests and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Development of effective strategies to address climate change will require collective effort on the part of many countries over an extended period and across a range of activities. The challenge for the international community will be to judge the equity and integrity of the various national commitments.

Global efforts to address climate change may be on a collision course with global efforts to reduce barriers to trade.  This paper discusses the broad question of whether environmental goals in general are threatened by free trade and the WTO, before turning to the narrower question of whether trade policies likely to be included in various national efforts to address climate change are likely to come into conflict with WTO rules.

This paper proposes a design for a post-2012 international climate agreement (Kyoto II) to follow the Kyoto Protocol. The proposed design would impose national limits on rich countries' greenhouse gas emissions and promote voluntary abatement by developing countries. It includes two new features aimed at promoting participation and compliance and addressing concerns about carbon leakage: (1) an escape clause that would give signatories the option to reduce their abatement requirements in exchange for a penalty and (2) the use of trade restrictions.