summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/chapter1.md
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorJoe Carstairs <s1806931@ed.ac.uk>2026-07-28 15:40:22 +0100
committerJoe Carstairs <s1806931@ed.ac.uk>2026-07-28 15:40:22 +0100
commit445ce4c8418b9b939ea697c2239468fd13d03bca (patch)
treeb5e0ed223ddfb1b40dc2802169e602a34d853c00 /chapter1.md
parente7dfaa36e480d153bc6cf31a1ddace2ee9af2be3 (diff)
chp1: helm on international agreements
Diffstat (limited to 'chapter1.md')
-rw-r--r--chapter1.md15
1 files changed, 15 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/chapter1.md b/chapter1.md
index fea3c99..d16ea24 100644
--- a/chapter1.md
+++ b/chapter1.md
@@ -481,6 +481,21 @@ can be achieved by anyone at all.
Example 1: legally binding emissions targets. (Who's going to enforce them?)
+The economist Dieter Helm has brilliantly summarised his scepticism of any
+global agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions:
+
+> To name but a few of the problems: the allocation of responsibility for the
+> existing stock of carbon in the atmosphere \[…\] is complex; carbon emissions
+> per head are low in those countries most rapidly increasing their emissions;
+> some countries (and, particularly, some countries' political élites) may
+> actually benefit from climate change, and generally the effects vary greatly
+> between countries; there are powerful—multidimensional—free-rider incentives;
+> the measurement of emissions \[…\] is at best weak; and there are, at present,
+> no serious enforcement mechanisms. It is hard to think of an international
+> problem which lends itself less to a coherent, credible, and sufficiently
+> robust and comprehensive general agreement. To put it in perspective, limiting
+> nuclear proliferation is trivial by comparison. [@helm-2009]
+
Example 2: give free stuff to developing countries. (Who's going to pay for it?
Who are you going to give it to?)