An Institutional Architecture for Climate Change

An Institutional Architecture for Climate Change

Description

Climate change presents us with a massive, unprecedented and multi-faceted challenge. It can be seen as a profound market failure resulting from misaligned incentives; as a behaviour problem, requiring marked shifts in the choices of millions of organisations and billions of people; as the stimulus for an epochal shift in historical periods, away from the energy systems that were at the core of the process of modernisation; as a long-term challenge that must deliver results over spans measured in generations; or as an immediate-term challenge that must be addressed by most, or all, of the world’s nations within just a few years.

Climate change is all of these things, of course, but above all, the challenge is one of leadership, co-ordination and collective action – and hence about institutions.

Global, national and local systems – and the incentives that govern them – must be re-engineered to deliver a stable climate at the same time as supporting a population that is growing in size, wealth and aspirations.

Information

Author(s)
A. Evans, D. Steven
Publisher
Center on International Cooperation
Date / journal vol no.
March 2009
Pages
47

References