June 30, 2011

America’s Red States Will Serve the Common Interest by Serving Their Own

In a summer already marred by tornados, floods, and wild fires, CGD senior fellow David Wheeler warns that the climate change politics of many American Red States pose a significant risk to their own prosperity and security (even as the broader U.S. failure to act on climate puts global development progress at immense risk) . Mounting scientific evidence shows that the most severe climate impacts are in the Red States, and their problems will steadily mount if they continue to hamstring national efforts to control carbon emissions. Wheeler’s paper, Confronting the American Divide on Climate Change, traces the problem to very high costs of carbon emissions abatement in some Red States. If their resistance to climate action continues, Wheeler recommends an entirely new strategy for carbon emissions reduction in the United States: Unilateral action by Green States and local communities, which can establish their own carbon-added taxes (CATs) without national legislation. CATs tax the carbon embodied in products sold locally, in contrast to cap-and-trade systems or conventional carbon taxes, which tax emissions at their sources. Unilateral adoption of CATS by Green States and local communities will push the whole country, including the Red States, toward a much-needed reduction of carbon emissions.

Mapping Climate Change: The Climate Change Vulnerability Index

In Quantifying Vulnerability to Climate Change: Implications for Adaptation Assistance, David Wheeler develops risk indicators for three critical effects of climate change: weather-related disasters, sea-level rise, and loss of agricultural productivity. Wheeler’s analysis is the first to cover the entire world: 233 countries and small island principalities. An interactive map draws upon the comprehensive dataset included with the working paper, offering a visual representation of country rankings in each problem area and for each country’s overall risk. The research provides donors and stakeholders a methodology to cost-effectively allocate funding for adaptation assistance.

Mobilizing Funds to Finance Climate and Other Global Public Goods

Global commons problems including climate change, cross-border health risks and natural-resource scarcities wreak havoc on many developing economies. Despite these risks, donor governments have been slow to fund programs that address global public goods, preferring traditional country-based assistance. In Find Me the Money: Financing Climate and Other Global Public Goods, Nancy Birdsall and Benjamin Leo recommend that countries use a portion of their IMF Special Drawing Rights, up to $75 billion, to finance climate-related projects in developing countries. This would provide a much-needed boost in resources at little or no budgetary cost.