Inside RFF
Kraiem Begins Three-Year
Term on RFF Board
problem and wants to do something about
it,” Kraiem says, “even those countries that
for good and sufficient reasons have resisted
the imposition of absolute caps on their
emissions.” The challenge is creating the
right incentives so that developing countries
can reconcile their global climate change
obligations with the imperative to create
prosperity and alleviate poverty at home.
For all the energy and work devoted
to addressing the climate change issue,
Kraiem says, it’s surprising that we are still
searching for ways to communicate about
the problem. The many writers who seek
to explain the conundrum and its solutions
are still striving to find compelling language
that resonates with the public.
At some point, however, he believes
people will make decisions that are rational
and efficient. If we cannot find common
ground on an emissions cap, he says, it
may be time to turn to a carbon tax, which
would introduce a new dynamic into the
market while raising the money needed to
make critical improvements along the path
toward low-carbon growth. “At the same
time,” he says, “we have to summon the
political will and the flexibility to find solutions that are not driven by ideology but
reflect instead a common desire to achieve
the best possible results on a global scale.”
Environmental issues are both profoundly
important and intellectually interesting
to this graduate of Yale College and the
Harvard Law School. Early in his career,
Kraiem says, he determined that nothing
was more important than addressing how
we, as a species, managed our connection
with the natural world. “It’s a moral issue,”
The newest member of the RFF Board of
Trustees is Rubén Kraiem. A partner in the
New York office of Covington and Burling,
LLP, he is a cochair of the law firm’s Clean
Energy and Climate
industry group, as well
as the partner principally responsible for
Covington’s corporate practice in Latin
America. In the past
several years, he has
been deeply involved
in U.S. as well as
international climate
change policy issues,
and he attended COP-13 (in Bali) and
COP-15 (in Copenhagen) as an adviser to
the Coalition for Rainforest Nations. Kraiem argues that a new conceptual
framework is needed to reach an agreement in the international climate change
talks. “We won’t be agreeing on caps—they
can’t be negotiated among the key players,
at least not in the near or medium term,” he
believes. Kraiem is nevertheless optimistic
about eventual consensus among nations:
“We will figure out ways to cooperate on
actions, like a concerted international effort
to reduce emissions from deforestation, that
will make a substantial difference and may
even detonate other changes.” He looks
for alliances among countries in identifying
and deploying breakthrough technologies,
with a view to finding the most effective
and cost-efficient opportunities for reducing
global emissions.
“Every country in the developing world
appreciates the extent of the climate change
48
he says. “If we can define this relationship
in a way that is genuinely sustainable and
puts the right values on the right things,
it follows that we will have improved our
practices in other areas, including our
observance and respect for human rights.”
“Very often,” he explains, “human rights
issues have the same basis as our relationship with the natural world. How will we
structure the relationship—as a source for
exploitation, or as a resource that has inherent value and integrity?”
Inside RFF
Nothing is more international than the environment.
Climate change—both the problems and the solutions
—cannot be understood without an appreciation of
its global nature.
Kraiem’s background and knowledge of
different cultures—he was born in Mexico
and came to the United States as a college
student—were what attracted him to international work. “I’ve always felt that where I
can contribute the most is in an international context,” he says. “And nothing is more
international than the environment. Climate
change—both the problems and the solutions—cannot be understood without an
appreciation of its global nature.”
An imprint of Earthscan
THE RFF LIBR ARY COLLEC TION
Winner of the FEEM 20th Anniversary Prize for its contribution to the field of environmental economics, Resources for the Future
is the pre-eminent research institution devoted exclusively to environmental issues. The RFF Library Collection brings back the landmark books published by RFF throughout its nearly 60-year history. Available as a 76-volume collection, individual books, or thematic sets, it is
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