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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?) |