EV201
Environment and Society
in the
Pacific Islands
Carbon Dioxide
EV201 -2024
Impacts of climate change
• Potential agricultural losses
• Islands and coastal areas lost to sea level rise
• Species extinction and ecosystem collapse
• Increase in disease incidence
• These impacts will be felt most strongly by
those who are too poor to mitigate or adapt to
climate change impacts.
Institutions: Climate free-riders and
carbon cooperation
• Impacts are not necessarily felt where CO2 is
emitted
• All countries would benefit from a reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions
• Assuming that cuts in emissions would put
someone at economic disadvantage, only
those who make reductions will pay
– Who should pay?
Cartogram of Carbon Emissions
Source: http://www.viewsoftheworld.net/?p=1976. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Reducing emissions
• Developed countries
– Emitted most of the CO2 in the atmosphere in order
to become developed
– Emit more CO2 per capita than less developed
countries
• Developing countries
– Emit less CO2 per capita, but have higher
population growth
– If they eventually emit as much per capita as
developed countries, they will have higher total
emissions as well
So how can we develop incentives to reduce emissions?
Overcoming barriers through flexibility:
the Kyoto Protocol
• An agreement between signatory countries to
reduce carbon emissions
– Rules can change over time with new information
– Reduction targets are dispersed over time to
allow time to develop new technology or
regulations
– Countries can trade emissions with each other
– Annex 1 (developed) countries have earlier and
mandatory cuts, share technology with Annex 2
– Annex 2 (less developed) countries have
voluntary cuts
Overcoming barriers through flexibility:
the Kyoto Protocol
• Some see the Kyoto Protocol as shallow
and weak, but it has been a good start to
further negotiations and more action
– Many have adopted more strict controls than
what was called for in the original protocol
– Local institutional efforts such as the U.S.
Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection
Agreement
Markets: Trading more gases, buying
less carbon
• For a market environmentalist:
– Emissions are an externality
– Command-and-control (regulation) is
inefficient, so market-based solutions are the
best way to account for the costs
• Possible solutions:
– Cap and trade
– Carbon offsets
Trading carbon
• Cap and trade
– Emissions are capped at a certain level
– A company or country that wants to emit more
will buy the right to emit from a company or
country that can emit less
Green carbon consumption
• People can pay the producer not to emit
by purchasing low-emissions products
• People can pay to offset carbon emitted
– E.g., programs where money pays to plant
more trees to sequester carbon
Joy of Tech comic courtesy of geekculture.com
The strange logic of carbon offsets
Political economy: Who killed the
atmosphere?
• Market mechanisms are the most popular
way to deal with carbon emissions
• But, if capital accumulation created the
problem, how can we expect it to get us
out of this mess?
Political economy: Green consumption is
still consumption
• Uneven development
– Wealthiest people produce the most carbon
but are the least affected by the impacts
– Those who are affected most cannot afford to
use money to express their preference
• 2nd contradiction of capital
– Capital accumulation requires consumption
– Consumption uses up resources, produces
waste, and degrades the environment
Critiques of carbon markets
• Greenwashing – marketing products or
services as environmentally friendly
without substantial efforts to reduce
impacts
– Cannot be sure that carbon offset programs
will actually offset carbon
– Carbon offset programs may benefit wealthier
countries and disadvantage poorer countries
Climate policy in political economy
• Markets and institutions have not successfully
reduced carbon in the atmosphere
– They HAVE been successful at concentrating
power and wealth
• Political economists prefer regulatory
solutions instead of markets because
contradictions in the economy are producing
the problem in the first place
Historical Carbon Emissions
http://www.globalissues.org/article/231/climate-justice-and-equity
Historical Carbon Emissions
•
By 2008, the rich nations had already counted for the majority of carbon emissions,
since 1800: 240 gigatons (Gt), vs 91 Gt from the rest of the world:
It is likely that emissions by 2050 will mean rich countries have ended up using
some 325 Gt (of the 600 total that is aimed for), or just over 50%. Yet, it needs to
be around 20% (because the rich nations are roughly 20% of the population):
http://www.globalissues.org/article/231/climate-justice-and-equity
Historical Carbon Emissions
http://www.globalissues.org/article/231/climate-justice-and-equity