Summers: Steps to climate control?
Economist Lawrence Summers has presented 4 steps for climate control. He (or his newspaper sub-editor) calls them practical, but given the political will and multi-national collaboration required, they do not appear all that practical.
“First, the US must engage in an energy efficiency programme that takes effect without delay and has meaningful bite. As long as developing countries can point to the US as a free rider there will not be serious dialogue about what they are willing to do. I prefer carbon and/or gasoline tax measures to permit systems or heavy regulatory approaches because the latter are more likely to be economically inefficient and to be regressive.
Second, the major industrial countries should commit to a very large increase in funding for research in technologies that could reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases, such as renewable energy, carbon sequestration and energy efficient engines. They should also learn a lesson from the pharmaceutical experience and commit to making intellectual property relating to clean energy available to developing countries on preferential terms.
Third, the World Bank, and probably the regional development banks, should be reconstituted by their shareholders as “Banks for Development and the Global Environment” and take on as a major mission the provision of subsidised capital for projects that have en-vironmental benefits that go be-yond na- tional borders. There is much that can be done to encourage energy efficiency in almost every sector in developing countries, yet national governments have inadequate incentives to take ac-count of global impacts. Moreover, the institutions need a new role with res-pect to countries other than the poorest ones at a time when the leading developing countries are actually exporting rather than importing capital.
Fourth, a goal should be set of eliminating by 2025 the more than $200bn (£101bn) the world spends each year on energy subsidies, enforced through strategies such as those used for inappropriate subsidies in trade. This will require considerable work on the definition and measurement of total energy subsidies.
In addition, given that viable solutions depend on significant changes in developing country policies, it is essential that they are full participants in setting the global direction. They are likely to do more if they can help shape policy than if it is simply the Group of Seven leading industrial nations seeking to bring them along.”