UN Publishes Road Map for Global Governance of Climate Change Policies
ECONOMICS, FINANCE & TRADE, ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH, SUSTAINABILITY
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has issued an information note regarding climate change policy proposals and their potential consequences. This week, the UNFCCC is holding its Seventh Session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP). This is the first of three planned negotiating sessions where industrialized (“Annex I”) countries will meet to discuss possible commitments to the Copenhagen Accord, the follow-up treaty to the Kyoto Protocol which will be negotiated and put into effect in December 2009 during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
The information note highlights three categories of policy proposals: domestic/national climate change measures; trade-related climate change policies; and international climate responses.
On the domestic front, some suggested policy changes include implementing carbon taxes; reforming subsidy legislation, including granting subsidies for “green” technologies, and removing subsidies from “greenhouse gas intensive” goods; instituting energy policy reform, such as investing in “green” technologies, supporting research and development of such technologies, and mandating the use of environmentally friendly technologies; and developing cap-and-trade systems.
Trade-related policy suggestions include utilizing tariffs to discourage trade in polluting technologies and encourage trade in “green” goods; establishing standards and labeling requirements for products; and implementing border carbon adjustments.
Finally, the UNFCCC suggests several international measures, such as establishing international carbon taxes; encouraging technology cooperation; and implementing subsidy reform on an international level.
In discussing these policy suggestions, the information note also emphasizes that all “responses to climate change should be coordinated with social and economic development in an integrated manner with a view to avoiding adverse impacts on the latter, taking into full account the legitimate priority needs of developing countries for the achievement of sustained economic growth and the eradication of poverty.” Thus, the UNFCCC notes that the involvement of other organizations such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Bank , the International Monetary Fund , and the Commission on Sustainable Development , will be essential to achieving lasting climate change goals.
In addition to highlighting measures aimed at addressing climate change, the UNFCCC also points out the potential consequences of such policies. While it acknowledges some adverse effects of climate change measures on economic growth, the information note gives the impression that the positive consequences far outweigh any negative implications that such policy changes might have. Indeed, the UNFCC suggests that, armed with an awareness of negative consequences, countries should be able to minimize most undesirable effects.
However, the UNFCCC’s information note does not adequately address the negative impacts of its climate change global governance proposals. The UNFCCC ignores many adverse side effects of its policy proposals, particularly in regards to the world economy. Though it acknowledges that measures such as increased taxes on and the removal of subsidies from greenhouse gas intensive technologies, as well as the introduction of various new standards and labeling requirements, may lead to increased costs of “traditional exports” and goods dependent on fossil fuels, it describes these consequences in vague terms, neglecting to fully recognize the effects that such increased costs would have on consumers and national economies. In addition, many of the UNFCCC’s policy suggestions involve investing a significant amount of money in the research and development of “green” technologies and mandating the use of such technologies, but give no indication as to how such measures would be funded.
Perhaps most worrying, however, are the information note’s efforts to encourage the involvement of other international organizations in the climate change debate, so as to ensure that the needs of developing countries are given first priority. By so doing, the UNFCCC is perpetuating the global governance of climate change policy, making it increasingly difficult for sovereign nation states to decide environmental legislation as they see fit.
Jim Kelly is the President of Solidarity Center for Law and Justice, P.C., a public interest civil and human rights law firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. The opinions expressed herein are his own.
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