Collective Action As A Response To Climate Change
See also: Climate changeClimate change has been described by the Stern Review as a problem to be solved by international cooperation. It stated that 'no two countries will face exactly the same situation in terms of impacts or the costs and benefits of action, and no country can take effective action to control the risks that they face alone. International collective action to tackle the problem is required because climate... is a global public good — and because co-operative action will greatly reduce the costs of both mitigation and adaption. The international collective response to the climate change problem required is therefore unique, both in terms of its complexity and depth'.
International collective actions that are presently taking place include:
- multilateral frameworks such as UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol
- partnerships, networks, and organisations such as the International Energy Agency, that enable coordinated international action
- mutual understanding of domestic policy goals.
International collective action has been shown to be more likely to succeed where there is mutual self-interest, when it is in response to a shared threat, and where there is leadership by a dominant country.
Game theory has been used to identify key criteria for designing international collective action on climate change. Lessons from game theory include:
- changing the structure of incentives to make cooperation more appealing
- understanding the role of reciprocity, particularly when faced with prisoner's dilemma situations: players may adopt strategies of conditional cooperation, where the more others contribute to the public good, the more they will contribute themselves
- increasing the frequency of contact and transparency (institutional structures and repeated negotiations)
- offering opportunities to renegotiate rules at key stages
- understanding the role of reputation in influencing outcomes.
Read more about this topic: Collective Action
Famous quotes containing the words collective, action, response, climate and/or change:
“We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video past—the portrayals of family life on such television programs as “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” and all the rest.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“Love is the victim’s response to the rapist.”
—Ti-Grace Atkinson (b. 1938?)
“Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull,
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,
Killing their fruit with frowns?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Men must be capable of imagining and executing and insisting on social change if they are to reform or even maintain civilization, and capable too of furnishing the rebellion which is sometimes necessary if society is not to perish of immobility.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)