A Strategy for International Climate Negotiations

For International Climate Negotiations

8. Who Agrees?

Richard N. Cooper of Harvard appears to have been the first to call for global carbon pricing. He was calling for an internationally uniform carbon tax as early as 1999 and as late as 2006, but in October 2008 he published “The Case for Charges on Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” This paper advocates essential the system presented here but without the ability to trade carbon revenue credits and without the Green Fund.


Joseph E. Stiglitz has international carbon taxing including enforcement with trade sanctions as advocated here and taught us about the WTO precedent for using such sanctions. In January 2010 he published and op-ed advocating “a commitment by each country to raise the price of emissions (whether through a carbon tax or emissions caps) to an agreed level.” This aligns him with Cooper.
 
Warwick McKibbin, Adele Morris, and Peter Wilcoxen published “Achieving Comparable Effort through Carbon Price Agreements” in December 2009. They advocate a hybrid system between a international capping and global carbon pricing. Emission commitments would be supplemented with floor and ceiling prices, which need not all be the same as all parties were “comfortable with and difference.” If this comfort were achieved with tradable carbon revenue permits, their system would be extremely similar to the one presented here (though still lacking the Green Fund).
 
William D. Nordhaus has long advocated harmonized global carbon taxes.
 
Scott Barret’s critique of the Kyoto treaty is very similar to the one presented here and has substantially influenced the way we view the contribution of global carbon pricing. See his two books: Why Cooperate?: The Incentive to Supply Global Public Goods (2007), and Environment and Statecraft: The Strategy of Environmental Treaty-Making (2006).
 
See also a number of quotes from those with similar critiques of the Kyoto approach (quotes). 

Global Carbon Pricing Explained

Proposal summary

(books and papers)

Stiglitz’s op-ed

“Pricing Is a Better Climate Commitment,” Cramton & Stoft, Dec. 2009, 4 pp. (economist’s op-ed) abstract +PDF.

“Global Carbon Pricing: A Better Climate Commitment,” Cramton & Stoft, Dec. 2009, 20 pp. (easy journal article) abstract +PDF.

Beyond Kyoto: Flexible Global Carbon Pricing for Global Cooperation, Stoft, Oct. 2009, 80 pp. (general audience e-book) abstract +PDF.

“Flexible Global Carbon Pricing: A Backward-Compatible Upgrade for the Kyoto Protocol,” Stoft, July 2009, 25 pp. (article + technical appendix) abstract +PDF.

Carbonomics, Stoft, Dec. 2008, 250 pp. (general audience book) PDFAmazon.

“The Case for Charges on Greenhouse Gases,” Cooper, October 2008, 30 pp. (article) abstract +PDF.

Related Papers

“Achieving Comparable Effort through Carbon Price Agreements” Harvard


What Happened at Copenhagen?

China and India’s Intensity “Caps”