Facilitating Linkage of Heterogeneous Regional, National, and Sub-national Climate Policies Through a Future International Agreement

As negotiators from countries around the world meet in Lima as part of the process of negotiating an agreement to be finalized in Paris one year later, a major question is how can the new hybrid policy architecture encourage greater ambition, while remaining true to the principle of 'common but...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2014
Main Authors: Bodansky, Daniel, Hoedl, Seth, Metcalf, Gilbert E, Stavins, Robert N
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Environment
Government
International cooperation
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Summary:As negotiators from countries around the world meet in Lima as part of the process of negotiating an agreement to be finalized in Paris one year later, a major question is how can the new hybrid policy architecture encourage greater ambition, while remaining true to the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibilities.' A key answer to that question is to allow for the linkage of heterogeneous national policy instruments. This paper examines what needs to be in the 2015 agreement to make that possible. This paper concludes that there are a number of design elements the 2015 agreement should avoid, because they would inhibit linkage. These include "supplementarity requirements" that require parties to accomplish all or most of their emissions-reduction commitments within their national borders. The 2015 agreement also should avoid including detailed linkage rules in the core agreement; an agreement with more flexibility would allow rules to evolve on the basis of experience. The authors conclude that the most valuable outcome of the Paris Agreement regarding linkage may simply be including an explicit statement that parties may transfer portions of their emissions-reduction contributions to other parties -- and that these transferred units may be used by the transferees to implement their own commitments.