The strategic role of AIJ and domestic offsets in the evolving international response to climate change
- Alberta Dept. of Energy, Edmonton, Alberta (Canada)
- Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, Ontario (Canada). Canadian Joint Implementation Initiative Office
Prior to the 1988 Toronto conference on global warming, the issue was largely one of scientific debate. After 1988, there was a call on policy makers to respond to this issue with coordinated international action. From this the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) was established, which provides the international infrastructure to discuss climate change and develop response policies. At the First Conference of the Parties (COP-1) to the FCCC, member countries agreed that: the FCCC goal would be stabilization of concentrations below dangerous levels, signatories would develop emission inventories, nations to pursue technology exchange, and Annex 1 nations agreed to aim to stabilize their emissions at 1990 level by 2000. There was also agreement on pilot phase of Activities Implemented Jointly, but without credit. This history indicates that there is an ongoing evolution in the scientific understanding and economic implications of responding to climate change, the development of international mechanisms to respond (via the FCCC), ongoing commitments to address the issue, and policy tools to implement these commitments. Policy tools such as national voluntary programs will remain a central policy response for many countries. However, there is an increasing awareness that in the longer term, a global response strategy to climate change will need to emerge that involves all countries, implements policy tools that are as economically as cost-effective as possible, allow developing countries to grow and prosper, and ultimately leads towards the FCCC goal of stabilization of concentrations below dangerous levels. Domestic greenhouse gas offsets and international AIJ projects are relatively new, but vitally important strategies in the ongoing evolutionary response to climate change.
- OSTI ID:
- 351188
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-970677--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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