Carmen Bunzl - Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Chapter 2. Options for future climate change architectures 83
definition and collection would provide governments a more thorough base to
calculate abatement potentials in a given sector, and therefore to set targets in a
more equitable way.
Weaknesses
Some crucial challenges of global sector industry approaches have been
identified (Egenhofer, 2008).
Sectoral approaches are very data-intensive. However, there is rich
experience regarding data collection and use, e.g. for benchmarking
performance, within existing global sectoral industry approaches (under the
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) or the Asia-
Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APP), which will be
introduced in another section).
There is difficulty in establishing standard measures: e.g. India uses coal
(with higher per unit CO2 emissions) for industrial heating, while the EU uses
mostly gas. India has also many local and inefficient industrial plants that
provide local services that are very difficult to replace.
Global sectoral industry approaches can be seen as some kind of sector-wide
coordinated activity. Anti-trust concerns in different national or regional
jurisdictions may raise. Because of the expanded roles of industry groupings,
there would be issues on how the market functions, it may not be transparent.
Independent 3 rd parties could be used to protect confidentiality of participant’s
information.
It has been said before that one of the objectives of sectoral approaches is to
enhance participation of major companies of key energy-intensive industries in
emerging economies, where most of the additional emissions will come from.
However, developing countries may perceive sectoral approaches as a way to
push them to binding commitments. Incentives are needed for this
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI Carmen Bunzl Boulet Junio 2008