The most critical challenge for global economic governance is to find effective and fair ways of mitigating and adapting to climate change whilst at the same time reducing global income inequalities and realizing the development aspirations and unrealized human potential of millions of people in developing countries. Recent evidence, for example on sea level rise and the shrinking summer ice in the Arctic Ocean, suggests that climate change is occurring even faster than models pronounced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have predicted. Biophysical feedback mechanisms, too often omitted from climate models, are likely to be a key factor in the underestimation and are likely to make climate change irreversible once critical atmospheric temperatures are passed. How fast we act will affect both the magnitude and reversibility of climate change. Some say 2015 will be too late; but even if they are wrong, the climate issue will certainly be at the top of the public agenda by then.
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17 Mar 2009 / Charles Gore
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20 Jan 2009 / Alexander Betts
A confluence of factors appears to be driving debate on the linkage between climate change and migration – but sound empirical evidence certainly is not one of them, writes Alexander Betts, director of GEG’s Global Migration Governance programme.
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07 Dec 2008 / Kizzy Gandy
Would revising the ‘Make Poverty History’ slogan to ‘Make Poverty Slightly Less’ reduce public cynicism about development aid? At a recent London conference (28 November, 2008) on ‘Giving for Development’, held at Cass Business School, City University, it was argued that the current development narrative is too ambitious. Qualitative research presented at the conference showed many Britons believe the government’s development efforts are largely driven by celebrity activists like Bono and Bob Geldof. Thus, it was suggested that a more modest development narrative could assist in lowering public expectations about what the government is able to achieve with regards to poverty alleviation in Third World countries.
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03 Dec 2008 / Robert O. Keohane
President-Elect Barack Obama has recently indicated that he will support a cap-and-trade regime for mitigating climate change. A buyer liability-based system could provide the basis for a politically realistic cap-and-trade regime not doomed by enforcement problems. It could therefore contribute to effective regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
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28 Nov 2008 / Arunabha Ghosh
The UNFCCC Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland from 1-12 December comes right in the middle of climate negotiations launched last year in Bali and scheduled to be completed in Copenhagen in 2009. Developing countries have submitted several proposals. Will Poznan give momentum to discussions on the governance of a post-2012 climate regime?
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21 Nov 2008 / Kizzy Gandy
A report just launched by the Terrestrial Carbon Group makes an important contribution to the global climate change debate. The authors include dozens of eminent scientists, economists and public policy specialists such as Joseph Stiglitz and Tim Flannery. The report comes just in time for the next round of international negotiations – to be held in Poznan, December 2008 – which will advance the agenda for a post-Kyoto agreement.
