Challenges for Climate Negotiators in Ghana

Will the 2012 International Climate Treaty burden the economies of rich countries and limit the growth of developing nations?  If so, negotiators in Ghana this week say that the new treaty will be doomed to fail.  Since 1997 the big question has been how to prod developed nations to sign on to Kyoto’s successor.  Meanwhile, negotiators are faced with new challenges. The current skyrocketing of food, fuel and biofuel prices threatens to side track the long-term thinking of developing nations.  What are treaty designers to do? One negotiator intimates that there seems to be little opportunity for success without big doses of cooperation.  In other words, rich nations will need to ease away from their entrenched self interest.

For some empirical guidance, economists have found that good policies are those that support socially valued ends by harnessing selfish preferences to public ends AND evoking public-spirited motives. Examples, on a much smaller scale, include the modest tax on plastic grocery bags in Ireland or bottle bills across the US.

Can negotiators scale up these examples and reach consensus before an agreement is due to wrap up in Copenhagen next year?