Scott Barrett: Climate change is so profoundly important and complex. It is the challenge of our generation. Can the world learn to cooperate on this challenge?
You're listening to economist Scott Barrett, at Columbia University. He’s talking about the Copenhagen climate summit, scheduled to begin on December 7th. World leaders will try to craft an international climate treaty.
Scott Barrett: What would be a successful treaty would be if the agreement changed the way that countries behaved – if it caused countries to reduce the emissions, if it stimulated a technological revolution, and made it possible for greater reductions to be achieved in the future.
An example from the past, said Barrett, it's the Montreal Protocol(蒙特利尔议定书) which in 1987, banned ozone-depleting(臭氧层破坏) chemicals worldwide. But those same chemicals were later found to also be greenhouse gases. A study published by the National Academies found that banning ozone-depleting chemicals had the effect of cutting roughly a third of yearly global emissions on CO2.
Scott Barrett: It is astonishing and one of the greatest successes of international cooperation in human history. And I think we could provide some leverage off the success and achieve even more.
Barrett suggested that, in Copenhagen, agreements be broken down into individual gases like CO2.
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