Prospects for Paris: Some thoughts on climate risk management with heterogeneous countries
Bio
Simon Buckle is the Climate Policy Director at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London. He was Pro Rector for International Affairs at Imperial (2011-13) and formerly was a senior British diplomat. He has a doctorate in theoretical physics, was awarded a CMG in 2007 and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. He is a member of the Governing Board of the EIT Climate Knowledge and Innovation Community and a member of NERC's Strategic Programme Advisory Group (SPAG).
Abstract
A key challenge for the UN negotiations in the run up to the Paris 2015 climate summit (COP21) is to try find a way to reconcile the ambition of long-term climate policy targets with a process in which individual countries propose their own emissions reductions contributions. The talk will draw on a stylised climate economics model to illustrate and explore the likely diversity of country preferences over this long-term goal and the need for an approach that can ratchet up the level of ambition over time, while avoiding a zero-sum negotiation over carbon budgets. A political agreement on a global peak of fossil-related CO2 emissions by 2030 would be one approach. The potential implications and feasibility of such a target will be discussed along with some alternatives currently being considered as part of the negotiations process.
Further information
This event is free to attend and open to all UoB staff and students. No booking required.
There will be an opportunity to ask Simon questions at the end of his talk.