A Bretton Woods for the Climate

A Bretton Woods for the Climate

I can now call myself a published author!

At a recent World Bank conference in Stockholm FORES published the book “A Bretton Woods for the Climate” co-authored by me and two colleagues. In two parts and just over 200 pages we go through the key issues of the global negotiations on climate change; Institutions, governance, targets and timetables, burden sharing, financing, cap and trade, adaptation and mitigation and non-compliance mechanisms.

We try to sketch up a model for how to solve these issues and how to, in a cost effective and credible way, build a global framework that ensures countries take on strong commitments and follow though on them.

The book is a result of a thought process started at the Copenhagen climate summit when we (as well as the rest of the world) disappointedly watched world leaders fail to agree on how to solve the greatest problem facing the planet today. Perhaps, we thought, it’s not political will that’s lacking, but rather institutions fit for the tasks? Perhaps a different model than the 194 country, consensus based, setup of the UNFCCC should be explored?

This book suggests so and can be downloaded free of cost at: http://fores.se/assets/144/FORES_A_Bretton_Woods_for_the_Climate.pdf

Off to Central America

I’m leaving for Central America tomorrow morning and will update the blog sporadically.

Have a great June!

The European debt crisis

Remember the cold winter?

During this past winter climate change skeptics in Europe and the US had the time of their life as temperatures dropped deep and the general public started to ask themselves where global warming was. When global data for the winter has been compiled and analyzed, it turned out however that the rest of the world wasn’t really freezing as much as we did. Below are data on temperature anomalies during the winter from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

Data highlights for the whole year of 2009:

• Global land and ocean annual surface temperatures through December tied with 2006 as the fifth warmest on record.

• The 2000-2009 decade is the warmest on record, with an average global surface temperature of 0.54°C (0.96°F) above the 20th century average.

• Ocean surface temperatures (through December) tied with 2002 and 2004 as the fourth warmest on record.

• Land surface temperatures through December tied with 2003 as the seventh warmest on record.

Data highlights for January-April 2010:

Project syndicate

I would like to recommend a really nice website called Project Syndicate. Many of the world’s leading thinkers (mainly economists and political scientists) are writing articles commenting on current issues. It’s well worth spending some time here to read about things such as the Euro crisis, the Chinese economy  or democracy in the Arab world. Check it out at www.project-syndicate.org

Project Syndicate is a voluntary, member-based institution. Its mission is to:

• bring the highest quality commentaries and analysis by the world’s most distinguished voices to local audiences everywhere; and

• strengthen the independence of printed and electronic media in transition and developing countries.

Political trilemma?!

Interesting article about the “trilemma” of democracy, national sovereignty and globalization.  According to Dani Rodrik at Harvard one can’t have all three without one of them getting compromised. You can have democracy and a strong nation state, but then have to limit globalization. You can have democracy and globalization, but then you’ll have to limit the nation state and opt for some kind of global governance system.

I often think and discuss this issue. Today you can’t wake up in the morning, get dressed and have breakfast without having had connections with the whole world. The clothes you wear are produced in Asia, you eat food from Africa and Europe and drink coffee from Latin America. We have strong nation states and globalization, but somehow democracy is compromised as the consequences of our decision making process is no longer only affecting (or even chiefly affecting) the populace with the right to vote. I personally love the benefits of globalization, but we will have to instigate effective and democratic global governance systems in order to make it work better and better respond to crisis such as global warming or financial turmoil.

What went on in Copenhagen?

See this Spiegel article and video for a unique glimpse of the goings of global politics. The Spiegel has gotten hold of a sound recording from the final day of negotiations between world leaders at the climate change summit in Copenhagen.

Porter or Pollution Haven?

A research paper that I wrote while at Harvard last year has been awarded by the Swedish Competition Authority (Konkurrensverket) and on May 25th (my birthday) I’ll receive 10,000 Swedish crowns at an award ceremony in Stockholm, nice! The paper study what effect the cost of complying with environmental regulations have on the competitiveness of emissions intensive industries and you can download it here: porter-or-pollution-haven-jakob-rutqvist

Bretton Woods for the climate

I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks with finalizing a study on a Bretton Woods style institutional setup which could be a workable way to control global greenhouse gas emissions. The study goes through emission reductions in the industrialized world, emission offsets, funding projects in developing countries, trade issues, the political science of the negotiations and much  more. It actually seems to turn out more like a book than a study and hence perhaps I’ll publish my first book soon, that would be cool!

Anyway, the product should be out in the end of May and in conjunction with a conference where FORES will organize a session on carbon markets with some really fancy guests. The day before I’ve managed to get two Nobel Prize winners to an event in Stockholm so May seems to become an awesome month!

Pixels take over

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
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