Unilateral Emissions Mitigation, Spillovers, and Global Learning

• Main Authors: CHATTERJI, Shurojit, GHOSAL, Sayantan, WALSH, Sean, WHALLEY, John
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2014
• Subjects: Unilateral initiatives; mitigation; global learning; technology transfer; Economics; Economic Theory; Environmental Policy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/1614; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soe_research/article/2613/viewcontent/UnilateralEmissionMitigationSpillGlobalLearning_2013.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

What's the role of unilateral measures in global climate change mitigation in a post-Durban, post 2012 global policy regime? We argue that under conditions of preference heterogeneity, unilateral emissions mitigation at a subnational level may exist even when a nation is unwilling to commit to emission cuts. We establish that under certain assumptions, in a global strongly connected network of countries, learning the costs of switching to a low emissions activity can result in a universal adoption of such activities. We analyze the features of a policy proposal that could accelerate convergence to a low carbon world in the presence of global learning.