Carmen Bunzl - Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Chapter 2. Options for future climate change architectures 41
aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions; adaptation to climate change is
very relevant but not further considered here.
1.3 Criteria for policy choice
In defining a set of evaluation criteria, a number of studies have been used,
such as Berk et al. (2002), Höhne et al. (2003) or den Elzen and Berk (2003).
According to the IPCC, “there is broad consensus in the literature that a
successful agreement will have to be environmentally effective, cost-effective,
incorporate distributional considerations and equity, and be institutionally
feasible.” (Terry Barker et al., 2007). These are the criteria that are going to be
used in the assessment:
1. Environmental effectiveness – The extent to which a policy meets its
intended environmental objective or realizes positive environmental
outcomes. It will depend on the policy’s design, implementation,
participation, stringency and compliance.
2. Cost-effectiveness – The extent to which a policy achieves its
objectives at minimum cost for society. It implies both the direct costs
of administering and implementing the policy, and the indirect costs,
such as how the policy drives cost-reducing technological change –
costs for which data are limited and often ignored.
3. Distributional considerations – The distributional consequences of a
policy, which include dimensions such as fairness and equity. These
concepts are difficult to measure and especially to compare, as they
are fundamentally subjective.
A regulation that is perceived as being unfair or for which the
incidence is unbalanced may have a difficult time making it through
the political process. However sometimes the most equitable policy
may be not the most politically popular one. Sustainability may be
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI Carmen Bunzl Boulet Junio 2008