Teaching Climate Change Law & Policy

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The inaugural issue of Earthscan’s new climate journal, Climate and Development, contains a number of interesting articles, all of which are free access. One of the articles, Okereke & Schroeder, How Can Justice, Development and Climate Change Mitigation Be Reconciled for Developing Countries in a Post-Kyoto Settlement, 1 Climate & Development 10-15 (2009), presents a concise summary of some of some of the primary concerns of developing countries in negotiations for a post Kyoto climate regime. Among the primary arguments advanced by the authors:

• There are good opportunities to unite the objectives of justice, development and climate stabilization through innovative “bundling-up” initiatives; however, givne the complexity of climate negotiations, such initiatives could delay efforts to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions, with disproportionate impacts on the most vulnerable sectors of global society;
• Options for bundling equity, development and climate mitigation include the following:
  • Further differentiation among developing countries given the fact that they are both no means a monolithic bloc in terms of emissions, resources to address climate change, etc. Suggestions for criteria to effectuate such differentiation include assessments of vulnerability to climate change, the Human Development Index, GDP;
  • Reformation of the CDM towards a sectoral approach, coupled with establishment of a trust fund for climate justice and development, including potentially structuring this fund to function along the lines of an insurance mechanism;
  • Link climate change arrangements more tightly with other global regimes, e.g. trade, agriculture and biodiversity, with the treatment of the objectives of equity and development within these regimes as a single package
  • Scrapping of the current climate regime in favor of a number of issue-specific agreements, e.g. a global emissions trading scheme with facilities to benefit developing countries, or global technology agreement to address issue of intellectual property rights, a critical consideration for technology transfer to developing countries.

Related posts:

1. The EU and Funding of Climate Initiatives in Developing Countries
2. New report on facilitating adaptation in a new climate agreement
3. New Analysis of COP15
4. New Article on Adaptation and Trust Issues
5. New Reading on Geoengineering Governance

Filed under: Climate Change Law