Towards a Workable and Effective Climate Regime

Foreword
Climate change is an extreme global challenge and is high on the agenda of the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recently adopted by the United Nations General
Assembly. Although this is not the first significant episode of climate change in modern
history (see the Histoire du climat depuis l’an mil by Le Roy Ladurie, published in
1967), it is now a major threat to ecosystems, glaciers, coastal zones, agricultural yields
and, above all, to our economic systems and our societies. It is not only a threat to
future generations, but also a problem for the present ones. Sustaining and improving
the standard of living of all peoples, and especially the poor, will require slowing down
climate change and adapting to its effects.
Widespread apprehension is shared by both business and political leaders as well as
by the general public in most countries. If too little is done, the impacts of unabated
climate change could prove disastrous to all, above all in the most vulnerable regions
of the world that are usually the poorest. Cities, business organisations, and major
companies are taking steps to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, but in order to
succeed, governments will have to push beyond the pledges submitted for the COP21
meeting in Paris.
The essays in this book provide an extensive panorama of the dimensions of this
challenge: How will we get countries to act beyond their self-interest for the sake of their
collective interest? Perceptions about past responsibilities for climate change and future
obligations vary greatly across regions. These perceptions have to be taken into account.
Institutions have to go beyond the UNFCC/Paris process to promote experimentation
and learning and include increasingly ambitious provisions for monitoring, reporting
and verification that progressively extend beyond emission levels. Policies have to be
carried out simultaneously on several fronts, ranging from investment in low-carbon
technology and R&D, to adaptation, to financing. To be effective, simultaneous
cooperation in multiple areas will be necessary. Several contributions to the book
concur that the necessary societal transformation path will require that this cooperation
be driven – at least in market economies – by a change in relative prices revolving
around agreement on a reference carbon price to be implemented progressively, starting
from a unilateral basis.
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