COP-3: EU-US Cooperation on the Economics of Climate Policy
Resources for the Future COP 9 Activities
December 9-12, 2003
Milan, Italy
In cooperation with:
Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)
Ministry for the Environment and Territory
MIT Global Change Forum
Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)
EU-US Cooperation on the Economics of Climate Policy, Preliminary Convergence Wednesday, December 10, 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Official side event of the Ministry for the Environment and Territory organized by the FEEM, RFF, the MIT Global Change Forum, and the Centre for European Economic at Padiglione Italia.
Please check on-site monitors for updated time, location,
and direction information for each event.
Chairs:
- Alessandro Lanza, FEEM
- Ray Kopp, Resources for the Future
Participants/Presentations:
- Carlo Carraro, FEEM, Italy | Climate Policy Network
- Christian Egenhofer, Centre for European Policy Studies, Belgium | EU-US Co-operation on the Economics of Climate Policy
- Anil Markandya, World Bank and FEEM
- William Pizer, Resources for the Future, US | Climate Policy in the United States
Description:
Currently, the approaches to climate-change control taken in the US and in the EU differ considerably, as is most obviously demonstrated by the US withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol and the Climate Change Initiative introduced in the US. Nonetheless, there is general consensus that any attempt to effectively cope with the risk of climate change needs to be truly global in the longer term. In particular, the large GHG emitters, above all the US, must be involved in international co-operative efforts to control GHG emissions. The main question is whether the gap between the EU and the US, which currently continues to widen with respect to climate policy, can be bridged in the near future to guarantee an efficient next round of climate talks.
In order to verify whether a EU-US collaboration is realistic in the near term, leading economists from four international research centers discuss the role of these two major players in the future negotiations on climate-change control, highlighting possibilities and probabilities for potential future collaborations. The panelists first describe the major research focus of their center and how relevant policy issues are being addressed. Then, the current status of climate policy approaches inside the US and the EU is discussed, taking into account local and corporate initiatives in these countries. Panelists also address emissions trading and in particular the question of whether a US permit market could be linked to the EU emission trading scheme. Finally, panelists discuss the likelihood of a convergence on climate policy between the EU and the US, focusing in particular on the “when” and the “how” of such a collaboration as well as on the policy architectures which could support it.
This side event is the occasion to announce a new EU-US initiative: the Climate Policy Network. This network, formed by MIT, RFF, FEEM and ZEW, aims at fostering cooperation on economic research designed to support climate policy.
