Collective Action - Collective Action As A Response To Climate Change

Collective Action As A Response To Climate Change

See also: Climate change

Climate 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.

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