The Road to Paris and Beyond: Comparing Emissions Mitigation Efforts
In an article co-authored for Resources Magazine, the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions' Billy Pizer notes that understanding the comparability of countries' pledges to reduce greenhouse gases is critical to the negotiating process at the United Nations climate change conference in Paris in December 2015. Neither specific metrics nor a comprehensive policy surveillance mechanism have been agreed. To inform that difficult task, Pizer and co-author Joseph E. Aldy present three basic design principles and illustrate how an array of metrics might satisfy them. Because no single metrics satisfies all the principles, they recommend a portfolio approach that assesses countries' estimated emissions levels, emissions abatement, carbon and energy price effects, and implementation costs.