Copenhagen | Climate Science and Policy

The Challenge of Limiting the Temperature Increase to 2°C

Corrado Clini

Is the traditional format of the agreements under the Climate Change Convention still adequate to meet the two degree target? Corrado Clini, Director General of the Ministry of the Environment and Territory and Sea Protection of Italy, suggests that the challenge is new, complex and unprecedented. “Rather than focusing on complex legal structures and the construction of a new international bureaucracy on climate change – Dr. Clini writes – Europe should focus on promoting international projects. These projects will face the global technological challenge using the great potential of the European integrated economy, which has already achieved important levels of efficiency and innovation”.

published November 22nd, 2010

Tags: CO2, Cop 16, Copenhagen, international negotiations, post-Kyoto

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Challenges for a Post-Kyoto Agreement

Raymond J. Kopp

“The first issue is that anything that results in foreign policy from any particular government whether it’s a developed country or a developing country is really based on the domestic policies of those countries. You can’t have foreign policy without a foundation of domestic policy”. To achieve a new climate agreement we need both domestic and global policy, Ray Kopp (Resources for the Future – RFF) says in this video interview to Climate Science&Policy

published October 25th, 2010

Tags: climate institutions, CO2, Copenhagen, economics, Obama, post-Kyoto

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International and Domestic Politics: Climate Change as a Two Level Game

Robert O. Keohane

International structure affects the foreign policy issues and the domestic politics; you have to do both sequentially and simultaneously. Prof. Robert Keohane (Princeton University) talks about international relations, cap-and trade and a “dual-leadership world” where Usa and China have to take the lead. But how can we get action from people and leaders in climate negotiations? “May be the Economy of Esteem could help us”, Prof. Keohane argues in this interview to Climate Science&Policy

published June 30th, 2010

Tags: China, climate institutions, Copenhagen, economy of esteem, international negotiations, USA

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Smart Power for Global Climate Negotiations

Joseph S. Nye

It could be described as the ability to shape the preferences of others and attract them so that they want what you want. It is Soft Power and it is crucial in order to create a narrative of climate change which is widely accepted. But soft power alone isn’t enough: we need smart power, a combination of soft power and hard power. Prof. Joseph S. Nye (Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government) talks about the role of transnationl institutions, the new american course on climate policy and “How could we get everybody into the act and still get action”. “We are going to have to use a variety of international institutions and focus the European phrase, Variable Geometry” –

published June 28th, 2010

Tags: climate institutions, Copenhagen, international negotiations, IPCC, Obama, post-Kyoto, smart power, USA, variable geometry

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Low Carbon Economies: a necessity and a political possibility

Thomas C. Heller

We have learned great deal at Copenhagen: whatever agreement we will come to, it has to be about the quality of economic growth and the way that it goes forward.
Prof. Thomas Heller (Stanfors University and Executive Director at Climate Policy Initiative) explains why, after the Cop15, we have now a better sense of what the problem is and where the solutions lie.
“It’s the same for all policy – Prof. Heller says – no matter how well it is designed, no matter how well it is intended, there are always questions about how it is implemented or how effective will it be”

published June 3rd, 2010

Tags: Copenhagen, CPI, growth, post-Kyoto

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Climate Policy and World Sustainability

Carlo Carraro, Elisa Lanzi and Ramiro Parrado

Will the ambitious climate targets proposed at the G8 meeting in l’Aquila and discussed at COP15 in Copenhagen make the world more sustainable? In order to find an effective answer to this question, we should consider that a global climate policy may eventually lead to strong reductions of greenhouse gases, but it may also entail large costs and lower investments in education, wealth, or research and development. While the discussion on climate policy costs focus on GDP losses or monetary measures, authors introduce a new element in the discussion by combining economic, social, and environmental indicators onto a unique measure of sustainability, the FEEM Sustainability Index (FEEMSI), an innovative index which allows projecting sustainability indicators in the future. FEEMSI is able to summarize current and future sustainability performances for 40 countries up to the year 2020, and the effect of a stringent climate policy on sustainability is not straightforward

published March 22nd, 2010

Tags: Copenhagen, FEEMSI, sustainability

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A roadmap for post-Copenhagen years

Stephane Hallegatte

The Cop 15 is a bitter disappointment for European countries. While environment is one of the domains in which EU integration is deepest, European countries failed to build and support a common position that would have weighed on the outcome of the conference.
But the EU could try to make the Copenhagen Accord more ambitious and credible. How? Forgetting Kyoto – Stéphane Hallegatte suggests – recognizing that it is an important progress to have included the United States and China in a unique agreement and answering to four questions

published February 3rd, 2010

Tags: cap and trade, carbon market, Copenhagen, international negotiations, post-Kyoto, UNFCCC

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Two good news from Copenhagen?

Carlo Carraro and Emanuele Massetti

The “climate deadlock” prevented to sign a real substitute for the Kyoto Protocol. But two important novelties nonetheless emerged from Copenhagen. First, an informal, although politically relevant, declaration of national emissions reduction targets for 2020. Secondly, the definition of the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund.
How much good are these news? Announced mitigation targets are far from being adequate to control climate change, however there are chances to put the world on the right trajectory to reduce global warming significantly. The analysis of two economists explains why

published January 7th, 2010

Tags: carbon intensity, CO2, Copenhagen, international negotiations, IPCC, post-Kyoto

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After Copenhagen which prospect for climate negotiations?

Climate Science and Policy Editorial Staff

Cop15 came to its end without a legally-binding treaty and the public opinion is looking back at Copenhagen as the place where UN missed a big opportunity.
We can say that Cop15 was a complete failure; or we can look at Copenhagen as a step ahead toward the next climate treaty. In any case climate change is still there and it still is a big issue the world has to deal with. Answers by experts to one single question

published January 7th, 2010

Tags: Copenhagen, international negotiations, post-Kyoto

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Looking ahead from Copenhagen: how challenging is the Chinese carbon intensity target?

Carlo Carraro and Massimo Tavoni

At COP 15 in Copenhagen, China has put forward a proposal for cutting its carbon intensity by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2020. The scheme has generated a variety of responses, which is unsurprising given the difficulty of assessing the intensity target. In particular, it gave the impression that China and the US may take the lead in the fight against climate change. By comparing figures from history and recent projections, this note is an attempt to shed some light on how ambitious is the Chinese climate proposal and, therefore, on China’s actual cooperative effort to control climate change

published December 28th, 2009

Tags: carbon intensity, China, CO2, Copenhagen, international negotiations

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