Converging Markets

The crucible in this scenario for the international climate regime is the emergence of an effective and liquid international carbon market with participation of private entities. In order to make the carbon market effective a bilateral negotiation track will develop, operating in parallel with the multilateral track under the UNFCCC. The purpose of the bilateral track is to integrate the various emissions trading schemes involving private actors. This bilateral track feeds into the UNFCCC negotiations, which still represents the main arena for the international climate negotiations. Through the bilateral, bottom-up negotiations, a multistage system develops, with differentiated rights and duties, complemented by a package of coordinated support mechanisms. The advantages of such a bottom-up approach prove to be, inter alia, fewer negotiating parties, new negotiation arenas, and a new set of selective incentives. The result is a continuously evolving agreement with the potential to gradually broaden participation and deepen the reduction commitments of the international climate regime. Moreover, the bilateral agreements for linking schemes with private actors also represent a fallback in the event of a collapse in the multilateral negotiations.The article has been written by funding from the Central Research Institute for the Electric Power Industry in Tokyo and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It also represents an output of research financed by the Research Council of Norway, project no. 144768/520. The authors thank all three institutions for the funding, as well as the many participants at the workshops where the ideas in the paper have been presented. Their criticism and suggestions have been very stimulating, indeed.     

Global carbon pricing and the “Common But Differentiated Responsibilities”: the case of China

This paper analyzes whether using carbon pricing as the major mitigation policy instrument is compatible with the implementation of the “common but differentiated responsibility” principle in a global climate agreement. We focus more specifically on China, a key player in climate negotiations. This is done by adopting the Imaclim-R model to assess the economic effect of carbon pricing on the Chinese economy in different climate architectures which, despite aiming at the same stabilization target, differ in terms of the temporal profile of emission reductions and the regional distribution of efforts (different quota allocation schemes). Model outcomes prove that neither temporal nor regional flexibilities provides a satisfactory answer since the Chinese economy remains significantly hurt at certain time periods. This suggests the recourse to complementary measures to carbon pricing in order to help smoothing the necessary shift toward a low-carbon society. This means in particular that, to build a climate policy architecture that could be compatible with the “common but differentiated responsibility” principle, climate negotiations must go beyond global top-down systems relying on cap-and-trade to include bottom-up measures likely to complement the carbon price and make carbon mitigation acceptable in countries like China.     

Deliberative multi-actor dialogues as opportunities for transformative social learning and conflict resolution in international environmental negotiations

The format for formal international negotiations on environment and development sometimes prevents negotiators from truly listening to each other and adapt pre-existing positions to realize constructive conflict resolution. In this paper we present and analyse “Multi-Actor Dialogue Seminars” (MADS) as an approach to contribute to transformative social learning and conflict resolution, and the contribution to tangible and intangible outcomes in formal negotiations. Unlike negotiations, the objective of MADS is not to agree on a text, but to identify areas of agreement and disagreement, build trust and understanding and identify policy options that are tailored to different cultural-political and value systems. As a case study we use the breakdown of the negotiations at the formal Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference in 2010 regarding “innovative financial mechanisms,” and subsequent two international Quito Dialogues using the MADS approach. Through a composite of methods this article reveals the effects of the Quito Dialogues on formal CBD negotiations. The Quito Dialogues contributed to bringing actors out of their deadlock and thereby paving the way for constructive results in the formal CBD negotiations, evident by references in CBD Decisions adopted by 196 CBD Parties. We discuss key design and implementation factors which were decisive for these effects including the importance of a bridging organization, trust building, exploration of both convergences and divergences, involvement of participants with diverse and conflicting views early in the planning, promotion of active listening and addressing diverse knowledge systems and power asymmetries.     

UNFCCC negotiations (pre-Kyoto to COP-9): what the process says about the politics of CDM-sinks

One of the most contentious issues in the negotiations aimed at operationalizing the Kyoto Protocol was the treatment of sinks and, particularly, the eligibility of sinks projects in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). This paper attempts to analyse the politics underlying these negotiations, drawing on methods of process tracing, key informant interviews, negotiating texts and secondary literature. Tracing the sinks debate and highlighting key lessons about the nature of global environmental agreements and their institutional arrangements is the first step to recounting the history of the politics of one of the major contemporary international environmental debates. The paper shows that the Kyoto Protocol negotiations on sinks and CDM-sinks were multilaterally supported as a practical solution, but went ‘off track’ due to actors’ interests and tradeoffs. As regards future negotiations on forest sinks in developing countries under the framework of the UNFCCC, the paper argues that these are likely to be influenced by similar constraints, and also by the conservation and development agenda of its supporters; as well as the experience gathered on the CDM and the interests and concerns of developing countries. We broadly frame the paper within the literature on global environmental politics.

The Evolving and Multilayered EU–India Investment Relations—Regulatory Issues and Policy Conjectures

India and several EU member countries share a rich history of investment collaborations. The collaboration has been cemented with several formal agreements with individual EU members, and the recent negotiations with the trade bloc since June 2007 on a broad‐based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) can be considered as a culmination of this process while ongoing WTO negotiations on Mode 3 commitments remain essential in terms of market opening. The present article analyzes the multi‐layered regulation of foreign investment against the backdrop of the evolving EU‐India economic relations. The 2009 Treaty of Lisbon gave a new competence to the EU which will impact ongoing negotiations with India whose global standing has been significantly changing in recent years. The economic vibrancy, coupled with large market size, has earned India greater relevance in several international forums, thereby making the future EU—India investment treaty one of the most promising investment agreements.     

How Well Are Authorities Suited to Prevent Damage to the Environment?

Environment protection in Austria is still carried out mainly by public authorities. This article focuses on preventive measures. It takes up the approval of new or rebuilt plants according to the Trade Act as an illustration for a considerable number of similar procedures. Although there is an ongoing discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of those procedures, no attempt has been made yet to examine their contents from a strictly economic perspective. Therefore, the article extracts the economic consequences from the wording of the law and examines whether they can give rise to efficient environment protection, taking into consideration the goals and constraints of all the participants in the negotiations. It is found that in principle the procedure allows for efficient solutions, despite the disadvantages, which are frequently observed in the course of its application. Moreover, it is argued that some features of the procedure, such as the selection of an appropriate techn ology on behalf of an applicant as well as negotiations with the potential pollutees have not yet been interpreted correctly. An assessment against more market-orientated measures, which are favored nowadays, ought to take into consideration that they generally cannot be implemented without support from the government.     

Health insurance for Americans approaching age sixty-five: an analysis of options for incremental reform

This article provides a systematic evaluation of the options for incremental health insurance reforms aimed at older Americans nearing age sixty-five. It presents three basic arguments for giving special consideration to this age group: (1) early retirement and its effect on access to employer insurance; (2) changes in health and health care expenses associated with increasing age; (3) the vulnerability to unexpected economic or health "shocks" that will affect people throughout their retirement. The analysis of policy options begins by specifying criteria for evaluating alternative approaches to reform. The proposed criteria emphasize that reforms for this age group should be designed to fit with other financial plans and decisions made during such a transitional stage of life. Policy options should be judged according to fundamental goals such as equity and efficiency, not simply ranked according to the number of uninsured who will gain coverage. After offering a comprehensive catalog and evaluation of available options, the analysis identifies and discusses a preferred approach-which preserves choices while offering universal and subsidized access to Medicare before age sixty-five.     

Green economy and carbon markets for conservation and development: a critical view

Green economy aims to use economic rationality and market mechanisms to mute the most ecologically damaging effects of globalized capitalism while reviving economic growth in the global North, fostering development in the South, and decoupling economic growth from environmental decline. An archetypal application of green economy is transnational trade in ecosystem services, including reduced emissions for deforestation and degradation (REDD+). By compensating developing countries for maintaining forests as carbon sinks, this approach is meant to transcend politics and circumvent conflicts over the responsibilities of industrialized and ‘less-developed’ countries that have stymied global climate policy. However, carbon-offset trading is unlikely to result in lower greenhouse gas emissions, much less combined conservation and development gains. The troubled record of payment for environmental services and other schemes or commodification of nature illustrates that living ecosocial systems do not fit the requirements of market contracts. Disputes over proto-REDD+ projects point to the dangers that REDD+ will disadvantage or dispossess rural communities and distract attention from underlying causes of forest and livelihood loss. Two decades of all-but-futile climate negotiations have shown that global warming cannot be managed by means of technocratic expertise nor dealt with separately from the politics of inequality and the paradox of economic growth. The deceptive promise of greening with growth can blind us to these realities. Counter-hegemonic discourses to growth-centered green economy under the headings of buen vivir, mainly in the global South, and degrowth, mainly in the global North, therefore merit attention.     

Reinforcement of multilevel governance dynamics: creating momentum for increasing ambitions in international climate negotiations

Compared to the disappointment of the 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen, the results of the recent Conferences of the Parties can be regarded as positive progress. This was made possible due to lesson drawing and learning among states. Recent evidence from the UNFCCC negotiations suggests that countries began to reflect on the “Copenhagen experience.” They are setting up domestic climate legislation in the form of low carbon development plans and share their knowledge and experiences in the international climate change negotiations. Country representatives engage in workshops and roundtables to showcase their mitigation plans and low carbon development initiatives, thereby raising ambitions and creating group pressure on other countries. This article examines how the diffusion of policies across countries is motivated and facilitated by knowledge transfer and learning within multilevel-reinforcing governance dynamics between the domestic level and international negotiations. It analyzes how changes in the negotiation setting from confrontational formal negotiations to a more open forum and bottom-up pledge-and-review process, in combination with a positively framed win–win low carbon economic development narrative resulted in the diffusion of climate policies across developed and developing countries. Communicating these climate initiatives on the national level has shifted the debate. Countries emphasize less the win–lose perspective of economic costs and sacrifice. Thus, they focus less on the question of who should reduce emissions’, but identify co-benefits instead. The institutionalized knowledge sharing within the UNFCCC is also creating positive competitive dynamics among countries to increase their ambition and to take on a leadership role. This shift in the negotiations carries potential for a more ambitious aggregate negotiation outcome and opens up a window of opportunity.     

A Clean Development Mechanism with global atmospheric benefits for a post-2012 climate regime

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol allows the crediting of emission reductions from greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement projects in developing countries. The CDM is an offsetting mechanism and, in principle, a zero game to the atmosphere: emission reductions achieved from CDM projects allow industrialised countries to increase their emissions, respectively. The article explores how the CDM could be moved beyond a pure offsetting mechanism in a post-2012 climate regime by crediting only a fraction of the emission reductions from CDM projects, thereby providing a net atmospheric benefit. Potential implications on the carbon market are assessed in a qualitative manner and different design options for such a reform to the CDM are discussed. An important conclusion is that the effects on carbon market depend considerably on whether the use of the CDM is limited through caps or not.

China and India’s participation in global climate negotiations

In this paper, we discuss a range of issues concerning developing country participation in current global climate change mitigation negotiations, especially India and China. We argue that the problem of redefining ‘common yet differentiated responsibilities’ in a way which allows developing countries room to pursue their individual development goals while still achieving the necessary level of carbon mitigation is central to the debate. The choice of negotiating instruments, effective technology transfer and financial support, and other related issues have been raised principally by China and India, and may also be raised by several other countries. Kyoto non-compliance by Annex 1 countries will also greatly impact the negotiating power of China and India and other developing countries. We conclude that, once basic principles are clearly defined, the greatest incentive for China and India to participate in climate change negotiations is the prospect of future negotiating rounds that can be linked to a large number of climate change related issues, such as intellectual property, the potential for financial transfers and trade/market access.     

Climate agreements and India: aligning options and opportunities on a new track

The Climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 witnessed the emerging power of Brazil, South Africa, India, and China (BASIC). Although still focussed on domestic development goals, BASIC countries have made important steps toward a greater engagement in the global climate agenda. For India, the shift was marked by a voluntary, but conditional, target of reducing emission intensity, away from the past normative position based on “equal per capita,” emissions entitlements. The new track aims at finding cost-effective mitigation strategies that align national development goals and climate actions. This paper examines the mitigation potential of a domestic sustainable development policy using a suite of integrated assessment models. The long-term goal is to keep temperature increase below 2°C. This article shows that it is possible to match domestic development goals and climate mitigation. Win–win options exist and side benefits—in terms of energy security and local pollution—are important. However, development policies are not sufficient to achieve the desired emissions reductions. We find that it is necessary to introduce a constraint on the carbon budget. The price of carbon that emerges is however much lower than in a conventional mitigation scenario. Finally, this paper proposes to shift the negotiations away from the current climate-centric focus toward “development,” in order to reduce conflicts and deliver greater global and national benefits.     

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation: Opportunities and Pitfalls in Developing a New Legal Regime

Deforestation of tropical forests contributes approximately 10–20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This paper reviews various options proposed by countries to address reducing these emissions, including market-based approaches to fund activities to make these reductions. The paper explores some of the opportunities and pitfalls of market-based mechanisms, including such concepts as permanence, measurement, additionality, undermining the carbon market and sovereignty concerns. Possibly the greatest difficulty with market-based approaches is the issue of emissions displacement – a concept often called 'leakage'. One cause of leakage is the growing market for tropical timber, particularly in China. Options to address leakage are considered, including a new concept relating to carbon deficits as part of a demand-side management approach. Non-market mechanisms are also explored. Elements of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)'s Bali Action Plan, such as conservation, sustainable management of forests and the enhancement of carbon stocks, are also examined. The paper concludes that a step-by-step approach is needed to build the capacity of developing countries to meet the challenges of reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries (REDD).     

The role of the Asia Pacific Partnership in discursive contestation of the international climate regime

After withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol, the US Bush Administration and the Australian Howard Government pursued an international climate change policy focussed on voluntary international agreements outside the UN climate negotiations. This strategy included the formation of several climate agreements directed at technology development, including the 2005 Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP). The APP provides a model for international climate change policy directed at voluntary national greenhouse gas intensity targets, technology development through sectoral public–private partnerships and technology diffusion through trade. This article situates the APP within these US and Australian inspired climate agreements formed outside the UN negotiations. Bäckstrand and Lövbrand’s (in M. Pettenger (ed.) The social construction of climate change: power knowledge norms discourses, 2007) discourse analysis in relation to the international climate negotiations is used to explore differences between the APP and UN climate treaties. We find the APP embodies a discourse of what we call ‘deregulatory ecological modernisation’ that promotes limited public funding to ease informational failures in markets for cleaner technologies and management practices. The deregulatory ecological modernisation discourse is a deeply intensive market liberal approach to international climate change policy, which contests binding emission reduction targets and the development of a global carbon market. The USA, Australia, Japan and Canada represented a core group of countries that used the APP to promote the deregulatory ecological modernisation discourse and thereby contest any deepening of developed nations' emission reduction targets for the post-2012 period. However, with changes of leadership and new parties in power in the USA and Australia, it appears that the deregulatory ecological modernisation discourse has lost ground compared to a reengagement with discourses supportive of developed country emission reduction targets and equity-based adaptation and technology transfer assistance for developing nations.     

Giving Legal Effect to the Results of WTO Trade Negotiations: An Analysis of the Methods of Changing WTO Law

Trade negotiations conducted in the World Trade Organization(WTO) offer the significant benefit that their results can bemade legally binding and enforceable through an effective disputesettlement system. If negotiators wish to avail of this benefit,they must follow the correct procedures to give legal effectto their work. This article critically evaluates the main methodsof converting the results of WTO trade negotiations, with aparticular focus on the ongoing Doha Round, into WTO law. Itdemonstrates that amendments to the WTO agreements are procedurallycumbersome and have significant limitations. The article thereforeanalyses several alternative methods including modificationsto schedules, decisions of the Ministerial Conference (suchas waivers, authoritative interpretations, and Other Decisions),and the incorporation of new agreements into WTO law (whethermultilateral, plurilateral, or reference rules accepted throughschedules). The choice between these various methods is complicatedas each has advantages and disadvantages. By comparing and evaluatingthe available options, this article aims to assist negotiatorsand lawyers in making that difficult choice.     

COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE IN THE CANADIAN LANDSCAPE

This article looks at the growth of collaborative practice in Canada in the last decade and the legal and Canadian cultural underpinnings influencing this growth. Government recognition of and support for collaborative process has come from both the federal and provincial governments. Statutory support in family law statutes and in ethical standards for lawyers encourage alternate dispute resolution and have helped normalize consensual dispute resolution options. The article also looks at decisions from Canadian courts relating to the practice of collaborative law, including the confidentiality of collaborative process negotiations as set out in the participation agreement and the standard of care necessary for collaborative lawyers.     

Limiting costs or correcting market failures? Finance ministries and frame alignment in UN climate finance negotiations

Finance ministries are increasingly involved in UN climate finance negotiations, yet this development received very limited attention in the literature on climate finance or climate negotiations. It is not obvious from the literature on bureaucratic politics how these ministries will position themselves on climate finance: they may frame climate finance as expenditure to be limited or as an instrument for correcting the market failure of climate change. This paper investigates which frames have characterised the positions of finance ministries on key issues in the climate finance negotiations, and whether the use of a given frame corresponds to particular factors. Case studies of Denmark, India, Indonesia and the USA based on official documents and interviews show that the position of each finance ministry is generally consistent with one particular frame. The Indonesian and Danish finance ministries predominantly framed climate finance as a way of correcting a market failure. The Indian Ministry of Finance emphasised Common but Differentiated Responsibilities, which fits with the budget frame. The US Treasury’s position similarly fits with the budget frame while sharing elements of the market failure frame. Finance ministries that had the lead on climate finance were more likely follow the budget frame. The use of both frames cuts across the divide between industrialised and emerging economies. With the exception of the USA, left- and right-wing governments were equally likely to adopt either frame. These findings indicate that strengthening finance ministry forums built around the market failure frame can be a way of reducing norm fragmentation.     

The 2005 World Summit: UN Reform, Security, Environment and Development

This article reviews the negotiations leading up to the High-Level Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, which centred on United Nations reform, a review of the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and a follow-up of major UN conferences. The article considers the human security concept and the different perspectives of developed and developing countries in environmental negotiations. It provides an overview of the negotiations in the months before the Summit. The final part of the article considers the outcome of the World Summit and institutional questions related to the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the new UN Peace-Building Commission.     

Technology transfer negotiations: Determinants of MNEs' bargaining power

Technology is, perhaps, the most desirable attribute of multinational enterprises (MNEs) to the less developed countries (LDCs) and constitutes their primary source of bargaining power. Similarly, the attractiveness of a market to the MNEs constitutes LDCs' principal source of negotiating strength in dealing with MNEs on such matters as the conditions for investment and technology transfer. What is unclear is how these independent variables are most successfully utilized. The aim of this paper is to identify and examine the bargaining power variables and their level of influence in technology transfer negotiations. The result shows that though technology is always a source of negotiating strength to MNEs, locational attractiveness may not always be a significant source of bargaining power to LDCs in all negotiations with multinational enterprises.     

Permanent Land-based Facilities for Tourism in Antarctica: The Need for Regulation

Antarctica is often described as one of world's last wildernesses. For a very long time, its isolation from human settlements provided an effective protection from intensive human visitation; however, over the past two decades, human activities in Antarctica – in particular tourist activities – have grown and diversified rapidly. In view of environmental and other concerns, regulating Antarctic tourism has become one of the major issues of debate within the Antarctic Treaty System. One of the questions that has received much attention since 2004 is the question of whether additional measures are needed to regulate (e.g. prohibit) the future development of permanent land-based facilities (such as hotels, visitor centres, logistic facilities) for tourism in Antarctica. A number of State governments involved in the Antarctic Treaty System have proposed to prohibit such developments; however, the question has not yet received a clear answer.
After a brief introduction to the Antarctic Treaty System, this article provides a definition of permanent land-based facilities for tourism and an overview of current and past land-based tourism facilities in Antarctica. Next, the question of whether such facilities are likely to further develop in the near future is discussed and an inventory is made of arguments for and against such developments. Environmental issues will be discussed first, followed by other considerations. Based on this information, a number of regulatory options are described for consideration by policy makers. The authors argue that there is a need for regulating permanent land-based tourist facilities in Antarctica and in the conclusion of this article they express their views in respect of the most favourable option.