January 29, 2013
This a joint post with Lawrence MacDonald and previously appeared in The Guardian.The stalemate in the latest round of climate negotiations, held in Doha, Qatar, last month, makes it clear that a fresh approach is needed if the world is to avert climate catastrophe. One part of the solution should be a new global climate agency, founded, financed and led by a coalition of the big emerging market countries.Such an agency would not require prior agreement on two contentious issues that have stymied the international talks: binding emissions reductions, and financial support to help poor countries adapt and invest in clean growth. Instead, the new entity would focus on fostering co-operation on a wide range of knowledge-based issues that can provide a basis for progress even without such an agreement, and that will be necessary to support any agreement that eventually emerges.What would the new agency do? Despite the plethora of international organisations addressing climate change, there is a core set of knowledge-based services best supplied at the global level that are crucial and yet are not being adequately supplied.These include data collection and policy research (think of the World Bank's role in research on poverty reduction); surveillance and monitoring (the IMF's role in tracking members' macroeconomic and financial-sector issues to enhance global stability), and arbitration (the World Trade Organisation's role in settling trade disputes). Possible related functions include:
- tracking contributions to international climate funds, and to energy and climate-relevant research;
- supervisory and regulatory functions to undergird private markets in emissions rights at national, regional and global levels;
- organisation and facilitation of third-party financing of technology transfers to low-income countries;
- impartial third-party monitoring and reporting on climate actions by corporations and governments.
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CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise. CGD is a nonpartisan, independent organization and does not take institutional positions.