The OECD and Ghg Mitigation: A Policy Perspective

Abstract

Recent conclusions from the scientific community highlight the need for near term international and national policy to address the long-term risks associated with global climate change. As a backdrop to a policy discussion, it is useful to first consider a few of the main conclusions from the Third Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); these are straightforward and sobering and yet also optimistic. They are straightforward because they link human activities to observed global warming over the past fifty years. They are sobering because they conclude that current emission trends, if continued, could significantly raise global average temperatures in the coming century (IPCC 2001a). In turn, this could lead to a variety of socio-economic and ecosystem impacts some of which could be irreversible (IPCC 2001b). The conclusions are optimistic because they show that technologies available today can minimise the risk of climate change and that significant mitigation of GHG emissions can be achieved at relatively low cost in the coming decades. Furthermore the IPCC notes faster cost reductions and wider availability of new low or zero-emission technologies in recent years compared to previous expectations (IPCC 2001c). Ever-stronger scientific evidence about climate change does not appear to have calmed growing controversy about the next step for international climate policy. The Kyoto Protocol is the centre of recent debate. Yet the broad policy framework for international co-operation – as embodied in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) – remains unquestioned. One hundred and eighty six countries have ratified the 1992 FCCC agreeing to stabilise atmospheric 107