Annie Petsonk

Indigenous Lands, Protected Areas, and Slowing Climate Change

Recent climate talks in Copenhagen reaffirmed the crucial role of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). Creating and strengthening indigenous lands and other protected areas represents an effective, practical, and immediate REDD strategy that addresses both biodiversity and climate crises at once.

Toward a club of carbon markets

This paper proposes the creation of a club of carbon markets (CCM), to promote deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by supporting the development, harmonization, and increased ambition of domestic carbon markets. To achieve its aims, the club would establish common or reciprocal standards for environmental market infrastructure, transparency and environmental integrity; offer mutual recognition of members’ emissions units; allow participating jurisdictions to share experience and gain assistance in building institutional capacity; and promote domestic and cross-border investment in low-carbon development. Using a suite of incentives, including some from the trade arena, a club of carbon markets could serve as a powerful attractive nucleus for broadening the participation of jurisdictions in climate mitigation, much as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) served as the nucleus for broadening trade in products and services. A carbon markets club could be launched under UNFCCC auspices, but a more promising avenue might be to pursue the creation of the CCM as a complement to but outside the UN talks.

Interim targets and the climate treaty regime

Abstract We propose that international climate change policy would be strengthened by the development and adoption of targets for atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases 25–50 years in the future in addition to near- and long-term targets. ‘Interim concentration targets’, which could be accommodated under the current Convention/Protocol framework, would provide several advantages over the current focus on either the short term (e.g. Kyoto Protocol) or the long term (e.g. ultimate stabilization targets). Interim targets would help constrain rates of climate change (which are not sufficiently addressed by short- or long-term targets, even when paired together). They would also provide a means for keeping open the option of achieving a range of long-term goals while uncertainty (and political disagreement) over the appropriate goal is resolved. We substantiate a number of rationales for such an approach, discuss the use of interim targets in other contexts, and illustrate how such targets for climate change policy might be set.

Emission inventory on company level: lessons from Russia

Developing a transparent,accurate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissionsinventory is the first step toward buildingan effective GHG management system. Todate, GHG inventories have been conductedprimarily at national levels. Theinternationally accepted inventorymethodology developed by theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) is oriented to countrywideinventories. The electricity company RAOUESR is the largest single corporateemitter of GHG in the Russian Federation. The company is responsible for about 1/3 ofRussias CO2 emissions; RAOs fossil fuelemissions are comparable to the fossil fuelemissions of the United Kingdom. The GHGinventory prepared by RAO is the first suchcorporate emissions inventory undertaken ina non-OECD country. In this article wepresent a detailed independent examinationof the methodology RAO applied for theinventory. We identify the most importantsources of uncertainty and we estimate theuncertainty. The main conclusion of theindependent review is that the methodologyutilized by RAO and the informationsupporting the methodology are reliable andpresent a reasonably accurate company-widepicture of RAOs CO2 emissions. The shareof other greenhouse gases is negligiblysmall and we did not focus on this fractionof RAOs GHG emissions. As a next step, RAOmay wish to conduct more precisefacility-by-facility inventories in orderto create a robust GHG emission managementsystem.

Sectoral crediting: getting governance right from the beginning

Several pathways lead into a low-carbon, high-efficiency future. Many go through something commonly called ‘sectoral crediting’, by which developing economies would both adopt emission reduction goals for entire economic sectors and allow reductions to be sold, via permits, into industrialised countries’ compliance carbon markets. These twin elements of sectoral crediting contrast with project-by-project crediting, as is currently seen under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and sector-level emission standards not linked to any market mechanism.

Meeting the Climate Challenge in the Near Term: Policy Incentives for Early Action

If the nations of the world are to meet the goal of preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference in the world’s climate system, governmental policy-makers will need to move promptly to develop and implement effective policies to limit the emissions of the greenhouse gases that are contributing to the most rapid warming that planet Earth has experienced in the past 10,000 years. Formulating effective climate change policy, however, presents myriad challenges. This timely conference, organized by the Centre for European Economic Research and counterpart organizations, provides a wonderful opportunity for exchange of views on these challenges and ways of meeting them. The Environmental Defense Fund very much appreciates the invitation to participate in this important meeting.