Fairness, Credibility, and Effectiveness in the Copenhagen Accord: An Economic Assessment

32 Pages Posted: 8 Mar 2010 Last revised: 27 May 2010

See all articles by Enrica De Cian

Enrica De Cian

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM); CMCC - Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici

Alice Favero

Georgia Institute of Technology

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 1, 2010

Abstract

State-of-the-art literature on climate change policies has proposed numerous approaches for the Post-Kyoto agreement. However, in analysing the outcome of negotiations, the feeling is that a huge gap exists between policy makers and scientists. This paper tries to bridge this gap by providing a critical and comparative analysis of the Copenhagen Accord provisions, linking them to a part of the climate-economy literature. It assesses Copenhagen outcome in terms of economic efficiency, environmental effectiveness, and political credibility. Our conclusion suggests that the Copenhagen Accord succeeded in considering some of the climate policy principles, namely credibility, equity, and fairness. First, the change in political leadership indicates a more collaborative mood. Regarding equity and fairness, developing countries obtained an explicit commitment by developed countries for technology, but especially financial transfers, though on a conditional basis. The major limitation of the Accord is the way it addresses the trade-off between politically viability, thus implicitly fairness, and economic and environmental effectiveness. Therefore, future negotiations should deal with the eventuality of a global temperature increase above the 2 degrees, even in the presence of successful global mitigation.

Keywords: International climate policy architecture, integrated assessment model, post-Kyoto

JEL Classification: Q54, Q56, Q43

Suggested Citation

De Cian, Enrica and Favero, Alice, Fairness, Credibility, and Effectiveness in the Copenhagen Accord: An Economic Assessment (January 1, 2010). FEEM Working Paper No. 21.2010, CMCC Research Paper No. 84, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1564607 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1564607

Enrica De Cian

Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) ( email )

Campo S. M. Formosa, Castello 5252
Venice, 30122
Italy

CMCC - Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici ( email )

via Augusto Imperatore, 16
Lecce, I-73100
Italy

Alice Favero (Contact Author)

Georgia Institute of Technology ( email )

Atlanta, GA 30332
United States

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