Post-2012 Climate Policy Briefs

Fall 2009

The Pew Center has published the following series of briefs addressing some of the key issues involved in the global climate change negotiations.

A Copenhagen Climate Agreement
The UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December 2009 presents an historic opportunity to strengthen the international response to global climate change.  The aim in Copenhagen should be agreement on the fundamentals of a new multilateral framework ensuring that all major economies contribute equitably to the global climate effort.  This interim agreement should establish the basic legal and institutional architecture of a post-2012 framework within which governments can then negotiate a final agreement containing specific national commitments.

Verifying Mitigation Efforts in a New Climate Agreement (pdf)
A new global climate agreement will be most effective if parties are confident that it enables them to assess how well others are fulfilling their obligations. This can be achieved through a rigorous system of measurement, reporting, and verification. Key elements should include: annual emission inventories for all major greenhouse gas-emitting countries; national verification of mitigation commitments and actions in accordance with international guidelines; regular reports from parties detailing their implementation and verification of their commitments and actions; and expert review of parties’ inventories and implementation reports. Beyond verification, a new agreement should provide for a clear determination of whether a party is in compliance with its commitments. The compliance approach should be largely facilitative, rather than punitive, geared toward helping to identify and overcome obstacles to implementation.

Comparability of Developed Country Mitigation Efforts (pdf)
The “comparability” of climate mitigation efforts undertaken by developed countries can be assessed in many different ways. Some relevant factors such as emissions, population, and GDP are readily quantified and compared; others, such as a country’s geography, economic structure, or trade profile, are not. Given the multiplicity of factors at play, parties are unlikely to agree on an explicit formula to determine, or to assess the comparability of, their respective efforts. Rather, efforts are likely to be agreed through political bargaining in which countries emphasize the metrics and national circumstances that most favor their positions. The outcome will likely rest on parties’ mutual assessments of one another’s efforts, employing the criteria they deem most relevant.