The problem of rapid climate change is inextricably entwined with the challenges of development. Although high-income countries first created the problem through the unbridled emission of heat-trapping gases, poor people in the developing world are feeling the impacts first and worst. Moreover, some developing countries are now major emitters, and the developing world accounts for more than half of all current greenhouse gases. To be effective, responses to climate change must address developing countries’ needs, including their right to development.
The failure of UN negotiations to reach an international accord, coupled with the failure of the United States to enact climate legislation presents the world with a scary and seemingly intractable problem: there is no Plan B for heading off a climate catastrophe. CGD’s research and policy engagement on climate and development responds to this crisis in two ways: by strengthening the intellectual foundation for an eventual accord; and by offering research, data, and analysis that policymakers and others can act upon now, in the absence of an international agreement. CGD’s climate work builds on CGD’s expertise in development assistance and deep knowledge of developing countries.
CGD senior fellow David Wheeler, an internationally recognized expert on public information disclosure and environmental regulation in developing countries, leads CGD’s climate work. He has published more than a dozen CGD working papers on a wide variety of climate issues and is the architect of two emissions mapping tools, Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA), which shows the locations, ownership, and emissions of all the power plants in the world; and Forest Monitoring for Action (FORMA), which uses satellite data to provide monthly updates on tropical deforestation (down to 1 sq. km. resolution). Other CGD staff who have written on the international policy response to the climate challenge include CGD president Nancy Birdsall, senior fellow Arvind Subramanian, and research fellow Ben Leo. Additional contributors to CGD’s climate work are listed on the right.
Strengthening the Foundations for a Global Deal
In Another Inconvenient Truth: A Carbon-Intensive South Faces Environmental Disaster, No Matter What the North Does, Wheeler argues that while rich countries are responsible for most of the human-generated greenhouse gasses currently in the atmosphere, rapidly growing emissions in the developing world must also be curtailed soon to avoid climate catastrophe. High-income countries must help developing countries to achieve rapid, sustained economic growth and poverty reduction while at the same time shifting quickly to a low-carbon economy—or both parties are sunk.
Mobilizing climate finance will be an important component of a global deal. Wheeler and CGD visiting fellow Darius Nassiry have proposed establishing two “Green Venture Funds,” which would use public climate finance to promote investment in renewable energy. Nancy Birdsall and Ben Leo propose using IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to mobilize funding for climate finance.
Previously, ahead of the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference, CGD president Nancy Birdsall and co-author Jan von der Goltz surveyed members of the international development community with a special interest in climate change on the key elements of such a deal. Their findings, It's One Climate Policy World Out There—Almost , will be increasingly relevant as the global community attempts to find a way forward following climate summits in Copenhagen and Cancun, and in the lead up to Durban. Also relevant to this debate: Birdsall’s paper (with Arvind Subramanian), Energy Needs and Efficiency, Not Emissions: Re-framing the Climate Change Narrative.
The work below can be seen as providing the additional building blocks and mortar necessary for an international accord. However, these proposals can also be pursued in the absence of an agreement, an unhappy prospect that in the near term seems increasingly likely.
Using Public Information and Policy to Reduce Carbon Emissions
Regulatory approaches to reducing emissions are politically difficult: they face strong opposition from fossil fuel producers and other interests that benefit in the short term from the status quo. Yet millions of concerned global citizens are ready now to help promote climate-friendly products and technologies, acting as consumers, investors, shareholders, managers, and workers. Their actions can have a meaningful impact only with access to timely, accurate information about the implications of the choices they face. CGD is creating systems such as those below to provide a wide array of stakeholders with the information they need to take action now to reduce emissions.
- Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA): Launched in 2007, this online database presents through Google Maps and Google Earth the best available estimates of CO2 emissions for 50,000 power plants around the world and identities the 4,000 firms that own them. Power generation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for about one quarter of emissions worldwide, and is highly concentrated, making it potentially easier to address than more diffuse sources.
- Forest Monitoring for Action (FORMA): Forest Monitoring for Action (FORMA) uses freely available satellite data to generate rapidly updated online maps of tropical deforestation. Currently available for Indonesia from 2000 to the present with monthly time-lapse images since the end of 2005, these maps show where—and when—deforestation activity has occurred, providing useful information for local and national forest conservation programs and for international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions by paying to keep forests intact.
Integrating Climate Change into Development Assistance
Two new imperatives will complicate development efforts: limiting carbon emissions and coping with rising sea levels, destructive weather events, and falling agricultural productivity. Without technical and financial assistance, most poor countries are unlikely to overcome these challenges. CGD is identifying cost-effective policies to promote low-carbon development, tracking the integration of climate change into development assistance, and comparing the performance of assistance providers. Relevant CGD publications include:
Assessing Impacts on Developing Countries
The Center’s climate work builds upon research by William Cline, a joint senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Cline’s 2007 book, Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country provided the first worldwide, country-level estimates of the agricultural impact of climate change through 2080. His findings starkly reveal the stakes for developing countries: a 45 percent reduction in agricultural productivity in India and similar losses in much of sub-Saharan Africa. The implications of these findings for global stability—not to mention development—highlight the need to rapidly reduce carbon emissions while also preparing for the unavoidable effects of past emissions.
More recently, a 2011 paper by Wheeler, Quantifying Vulnerability to Climate Change: Implications for Adaptation Assistance, and an accompanying dataset estimate the vulnerability of 233 countries to three major effects of climate change (weather-related disasters, sea-level rise, and reduced agricultural productivity). A working paper on The Economics of Adaptation to Extreme Weather Events in Developing Countries assesses the cost of climate impacts. A 2009 working paper by Wheeler and co-authors assessed the effects of storm surges in developing countries, which are expected to increase substantially due to higher sea levels and larger storms driven by higher temperatures and increased moisture in the atmosphere.
At the same time, efforts to reduce emissions may also pose substantial risks for developing countries if they are implemented in ways that undermine economic growth. Subramanian, a joint fellow at CGD and the Peterson Institute, warns against such risks and outlines ways to avoid them in a pair of papers, Can Global De-Carbonization Inhibit Developing-Country Industrialization? and Reconciling Climate Change and Trade Policy . The problem of rapid climate change is inextricably entwined with the challenges of development. Although high-income countries first created the problem through the unbridled emission of heat-trapping gases, poor people in the developing world are feeling the impacts first and worst. Moreover, some developing countries are now major emitters, and the developing world accounts for more than half of all current greenhouse gases. To be effective, responses to climate change must address developing countries’ needs, including their right to development.
The failure of UN negotiations to reach an international accord, coupled with the failure of the United States to enact climate legislation presents the world with a scary and seemingly intractable problem: there is no Plan B for heading off a climate catastrophe. CGD’s research and policy engagement on climate and development responds to this crisis in two ways: by strengthening the intellectual foundation for an eventual accord; and by offering research, data, and analysis that policymakers and others can act upon now, in the absence of an international agreement. CGD’s climate work builds on CGD’s expertise in development assistance and deep knowledge of developing countries.
CGD senior fellow David Wheeler, an internationally recognized expert on public information disclosure and environmental regulation in developing countries, leads CGD’s climate work. He has published more than a dozen CGD working papers on a wide variety of climate issues and is the architect of two emissions mapping tools, Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA), which shows the locations, ownership, and emissions of all the power plants in the world; and Forest Monitoring for Action (FORMA), which uses satellite data to provide monthly updates on tropical deforestation (down to 1 sq. km. resolution). Other CGD staff who have written on the international policy response to the climate challenge include CGD president Nancy Birdsall, senior fellow Arvind Subramanian, and research fellow Ben Leo. Additional contributors to CGD’s climate work are listed on the right.
Strengthening the Foundations for a Global Deal
In Another Inconvenient Truth: A Carbon-Intensive South Faces Environmental Disaster, No Matter What the North Does, Wheeler argues that while rich countries are responsible for most of the human-generated greenhouse gasses currently in the atmosphere, rapidly growing emissions in the developing world must also be curtailed soon to avoid climate catastrophe. High-income countries must help developing countries to achieve rapid, sustained economic growth and poverty reduction while at the same time shifting quickly to a low-carbon economy—or both parties are sunk.
Mobilizing climate finance will be an important component of a global deal. Wheeler and CGD visiting fellow Darius Nassiry have proposed establishing two “Green Venture Funds,” which would use public climate finance to promote investment in renewable energy. Nancy Birdsall and Ben Leo propose using IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to mobilize funding for climate finance.
Previously, ahead of the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference, CGD president Nancy Birdsall and co-author Jan von der Goltz surveyed members of the international development community with a special interest in climate change on the key elements of such a deal. Their findings, It's One Climate Policy World Out There—Almost , will be increasingly relevant as the global community attempts to find a way forward following climate summits in Copenhagen and Cancun, and in the lead up to Durban. Also relevant to this debate: Birdsall’s paper (with Arvind Subramanian), Energy Needs and Efficiency, Not Emissions: Re-framing the Climate Change Narrative.
The work below can be seen as providing the additional building blocks and mortar necessary for an international accord. However, these proposals can also be pursued in the absence of an agreement, an unhappy prospect that in the near term seems increasingly likely.
Using Public Information and Policy to Reduce Carbon Emissions
Regulatory approaches to reducing emissions are politically difficult: they face strong opposition from fossil fuel producers and other interests that benefit in the short term from the status quo. Yet millions of concerned global citizens are ready now to help promote climate-friendly products and technologies, acting as consumers, investors, shareholders, managers, and workers. Their actions can have a meaningful impact only with access to timely, accurate information about the implications of the choices they face. CGD is creating systems such as those below to provide a wide array of stakeholders with the information they need to take action now to reduce emissions.
- Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA): Launched in 2007, this online database presents through Google Maps and Google Earth the best available estimates of CO2 emissions for 50,000 power plants around the world and identities the 4,000 firms that own them. Power generation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for about one quarter of emissions worldwide, and is highly concentrated, making it potentially easier to address than more diffuse sources.
- Forest Monitoring for Action (FORMA): Forest Monitoring for Action (FORMA) uses freely available satellite data to generate rapidly updated online maps of tropical deforestation. Currently available for Indonesia from 2000 to the present with monthly time-lapse images since the end of 2005, these maps show where—and when—deforestation activity has occurred, providing useful information for local and national forest conservation programs and for international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions by paying to keep forests intact.
Integrating Climate Change into Development Assistance
Two new imperatives will complicate development efforts: limiting carbon emissions and coping with rising sea levels, destructive weather events, and falling agricultural productivity. Without technical and financial assistance, most poor countries are unlikely to overcome these challenges. CGD is identifying cost-effective policies to promote low-carbon development, tracking the integration of climate change into development assistance, and comparing the performance of assistance providers. Relevant CGD publications include:
Assessing Impacts on Developing Countries
The Center’s climate work builds upon research by William Cline, a joint senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Cline’s 2007 book, Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country provided the first worldwide, country-level estimates of the agricultural impact of climate change through 2080. His findings starkly reveal the stakes for developing countries: a 45 percent reduction in agricultural productivity in India and similar losses in much of sub-Saharan Africa. The implications of these findings for global stability—not to mention development—highlight the need to rapidly reduce carbon emissions while also preparing for the unavoidable effects of past emissions.
More recently, a 2011 paper by Wheeler, Quantifying Vulnerability to Climate Change: Implications for Adaptation Assistance, and an accompanying dataset estimate the vulnerability of 233 countries to three major effects of climate change (weather-related disasters, sea-level rise, and reduced agricultural productivity). A working paper on The Economics of Adaptation to Extreme Weather Events in Developing Countries assesses the cost of climate impacts. A 2009 working paper by Wheeler and co-authors assessed the effects of storm surges in developing countries, which are expected to increase substantially due to higher sea levels and larger storms driven by higher temperatures and increased moisture in the atmosphere.
At the same time, efforts to reduce emissions may also pose substantial risks for developing countries if they are implemented in ways that undermine economic growth. Subramanian, a joint fellow at CGD and the Peterson Institute, warns against such risks and outlines ways to avoid them in a pair of papers, Can Global De-Carbonization Inhibit Developing-Country Industrialization? and Reconciling Climate Change and Trade Policy .
Newest
Popular
Publications
Experts
Initiatives
Multimedia
-
This data set includes the data and programs needed to replicate the analysis in Working Paper 282, From REDD to Green: A Global Incentive System to Stop Tropical Forest Clearing by David Wheeler, Dan Hammer, and Robin Kraft.
-
This data set includes the data and programs needed to replicate the analysis in Working Paper 280, Economic Dynamics and Forest Clearing: A Spatial Econometric Analysis for Indonesia by David Wheeler, Dan Hammer, Robin Kraft, Susmita Dasgupta, and Brian Blankespoor.
-
This data set includes the data and programs needed to replicate the analysis in Forest Clearing in the Pantropics: December 2005–August 2011 by David Wheeler, Robin Kraft, and Dan Hammer.
-
This report summarizes recent trends in large-scale tropical forest clearing identified by FORMA (Forest Monitoring for Action). FORMA produces indicators that track monthly changes in the number of 1-sq.-km. tropical forest parcels that have experienced clearing with high probability. This report...
-
This paper develops and illustrates a prototype incentive system for promoting rapid reduction of forest clearing in tropical countries.
-
David Wheeler and co-authors use detailed monthly data from FORMA (Forest Monitoring for Action) to determine the factors that contribute to deforestation in Indonesia. Their results highlight the importance of incorporating economic dynamics into financial compensation arrangements for forest...
-
The Commitment to Development Index ranks 22 of the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the 5.5 billion people living in poorer nations. Moving beyond standard comparisons of foreign aid volumes, the CDI quantifies a range of rich-country policies that affect...
-
David Wheeler estimates the destructive potential of releasing the carbon now sequestered in Alberta's oil sands.
-
Nancy Birdsall and Arvind Subramanian identify a fair deal on climate change for developed and developing countries by focusing not on equitable emissions quotas but on fair access to energy services.
-
These files accompany CGD Working Paper 259, "Fair Shares: Crediting Poor Countries for Carbon Mitigation." They include the Stata code used to produce the results reported in the paper, the supporting data, and definitions of variable names in the database.
-
The Commitment to Development Index ranks 22 of the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the 5.5 billion people living in poorer nations. Moving beyond standard comparisons of foreign aid volumes, the CDI quantifies a range of rich-country policies that affect...
-
This report summarizes recent trends in large-scale tropical forest clearing identified by FORMA (Forest Monitoring for Action). FORMA produces indicators that track monthly changes in the number of 1-sq.-km. tropical forest parcels that have experienced clearing with high probability. This report...
-
David Wheeler estimates the destructive potential of releasing the carbon now sequestered in Alberta's oil sands.
-
This paper develops and illustrates a prototype incentive system for promoting rapid reduction of forest clearing in tropical countries.
-
While the threat of global warming is increasingly accepted, little attention has been paid to the likely impact at the country level, especially in the developing world. In this new book, Bill Cline, a joint senior fellow at CGD and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, provides...
-
David Wheeler and co-authors use detailed monthly data from FORMA (Forest Monitoring for Action) to determine the factors that contribute to deforestation in Indonesia. Their results highlight the importance of incorporating economic dynamics into financial compensation arrangements for forest...
-
Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report, and a senior political analyst for CNN, David Gergen joined CGD president Nancy Birdsall, and CGD senior fellows who authored essays in our...
-
Senior fellow David Wheeler quantifies and makes available in an accompanying database the vulnerability of 233 countries to three major effects of climate change (weather-related disasters, sea-level rise, and reduced agricultural productivity) and develops a methodology for donors and other to...
-
The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President shows how modest changes in U.S. policies could greatly improve the lives of poor people in developing countries, thus fostering greater stability, security, and prosperity globally and at home. Center for Global...
-
Senior fellow David Wheeler quantifies and makes available in this dataset the vulnerability of 233 countries to three major effects of climate change (weather-related disasters, sea-level rise, and reduced agricultural productivity).
-
Nancy Birdsall, President An internationally recognized expert on the impact of rich-country policies on poor people in developing countries, Nancy Birdsall is the author, co-author, or editor of more than a dozen books and over 100 articles in scholarly journals and monographs, published in English and Spanish. She is the...
-
William R. Cline, Senior Fellow Emeritus William R. Cline is a senior fellow emeritus at the Center for Global Development and a senior fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics. His research focused on finance, capital flows, trade and development; currently he is investigating the differential impact of...
-
-
Nigel Purvis, Visiting Senior Associate Nigel Purvis is the founder, President and CEO of Climate Advisers, a Washington, DC-based consultancy specializing in U.S. climate change policy, international climate change cooperation, global carbon markets, and climate-related forest conservation. Previously, Mr. Purvis directed U.S....
-
David Roodman, Senior Fellow David Roodman's research focuses on microfinance, debt relief, and climate change. His book Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance is available now.
-
Arvind Subramanian, Senior Fellow Arvind Subramanian’s current work focuses on the economics of climate change and the ascendancy of China. His latest book is Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China's Economic Dominance. He is a joint senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
-
Jan von der Goltz, Visiting Senior Associate Jan von der Goltz works with CGD President Nancy Birdsall and the climate change team on ideas to forge a global climate deal and fund climate action. His academic research is on development finance and on the economic impacts of climate change.
-
David Wheeler, Senior Fellow Emeritus Until his recent retirement, David Wheeler led CGD’s work on climate change, which includes assessing the stakes for developing countries, integrating climate change into development assistance, and using public information disclosure to reduce emissions. He is the architect of two Web-based...
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Commitment to Development Index 2011
- Nov 1, 2011
The Commitment to Development Index ranks 22 of the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the 5.5 billion people living in poorer nations. Moving beyond standard comparisons of foreign aid volumes, the CDI quantifies a range of rich-country policies that affect...
-
-
Identifying a Fair Deal on Climate Change
- Oct 5, 2011
Nancy Birdsall and Arvind Subramanian identify a fair deal on climate change for developed and developing countries by focusing not on equitable emissions quotas but on fair access to energy services.
-
"Fair Shares" Data Set
- Sep 13, 2011
These files accompany CGD Working Paper 259, "Fair Shares: Crediting Poor Countries for Carbon Mitigation." They include the Stata code used to produce the results reported in the paper, the supporting data, and definitions of variable names in the database.
-
-
-
-
Dataset: Vulnerability to Climate Change
- Jan 24, 2011
Senior fellow David Wheeler quantifies and makes available in this dataset the vulnerability of 233 countries to three major effects of climate change (weather-related disasters, sea-level rise, and reduced agricultural productivity).
-
-
-
-
Commitment to Development Index 2010
- Nov 4, 2010
The Commitment to Development Index (CDI) ranks 22 of the world’s richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poorer nations. Moving beyond standard comparisons of foreign aid volumes, the CDI quantifies a range of rich country policies that...
-
-
-
-
-
Pulling Agricultural Innovation and the Market Together - Working Paper 215
- Jun 21, 2010
Scarce resources. Climate change. Population growth. Rising food prices. Feeding the world’s hungry will require a giant leap in agricultural innovation. In a new working paper, senior fellow Kimberly Elliott explores how advance market commitments could pull the private sector into producing for...
-
-
-
It's One Climate Policy World Out There--Almost - Working Paper 195
- Dec 7, 2009
With the Copenhagen climate talks finally underway, a CGD survey of 500 development and climate aficionados in 88 countries finds unexpected agreement about what should be done—and important differences between respondents from developed and developing countries about how an agreement should be...
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Biofuels and the Food Price Crisis: A Survey of the Issues - Working Paper 151
- Aug 11, 2008
While the precise contribution of biofuels to surging food prices is difficult to know, policies promoting production of the current generation of biofuels are not achieving their stated objectives of increased energy independence or reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Reaching the congressionally...
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
The Commitment to Development Index 2007 Report
- Oct 25, 2007
Each year since 2003, the Commitment to Development Index (CDI) has ranked 21 rich countries on their dedication (or not!) to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poor countries. The CDI moves beyond simple comparisons of aid funding and in so doing embodies the mission of CGD,...
-
-
The 2007 Commitment to Development Index: Components and Results
- Oct 10, 2007
This CGD brief summarizes the results of the 2007 Commitment to Development Index (CDI), which ranks 21 of the world's richest countries on their dedication to policies that benefit the five billion people living in poorer nations. The Netherlands comes in first on the 2007 CDI on the strength of...
-
-
Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country
- Sep 12, 2007
While the threat of global warming is increasingly accepted, little attention has been paid to the likely impact at the country level, especially in the developing world. In this new book, Bill Cline, a joint senior fellow at CGD and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, provides...
-
-
-
What's Wrong with the Millennium Development Goals?
- Sep 12, 2005
Many poor countries, especially in Africa, will miss the MDGs by a large margin. But neither African inaction nor a lack of aid will necessarily be the reason. Instead, responsibility for near-certain ‘failure’ lies with the overly-ambitious goals themselves and unrealistic expectations placed...
-
Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA)
This online map and database presents the best available estimates of CO2 emissions for 50,000 power plants around the world and the identities of the 4,000 firms that own them. Power generation accounts for about one-quarter of global emissions.
-
Forest Monitoring for Action (FORMA)
FORMA uses satellite data to generate regularly updated online maps of tropical forest clearing. Currently available for Indonesia from 2000 to the present, the maps support national forest conservation programs and international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
There are no opinions related to this topic.
|
|
Print
Share
