Home |
Site Index |
FAQs |
Contact |
RSS
|
Podcast
home > by publication type > critical policy choices > Climate Change
Email
| Author: | David G. Victor, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Science and Technology |
|---|
June 2004
200 pages
ISBN 0876093438
$15.00
Climate change is one of the most complex issues facing policy-makers today. David G. Victor, a leading expert on environmental policy, takes a fresh look at this issue and persuasively marshals arguments for three distinct approaches to combat the problem, casting each as a presidential speech. A must-read for environmentalists, educators, and anyone else interested in the issue, Climate Change is a most useful reference in the growing public debate about how best to meet this environmental challenge.
Controlling the emissions that cause global warming will require societies to incur costs now, while uncertain benefits accrue in the distant future. These conditions make it hard to create successful policy, yet the longer policy shifts are put off, the more greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere. Even as a consensus grows that something must be done, there is no agreement on the best course of action. Climate Change begins with a memorandum to the president that explains the multidimensional nature of this critical issue. It then lays out three contrasting perspectives for dealing with climate change and concludes with an index of scientific reports, government speeches, legislative proposals, and further readings. Of the three speeches presented, the first emphasizes the ability of modern, wealthy societies to adapt to the changing climate. A second speech urges reengagement with the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change while demanding reforms to make Kyoto more effective. A third urges unilateral action to create a market for low-carbon emission technologies from the “bottom up,” in contrast with “top-down” international treaties such as Kyoto.
Foreword v
Acknowledgments ix
List of Acronyms xi
Memorandum to the President 1
Speech One: Adaptation and Innovation 76
Speech Two: Reinvigorating Kyoto 89
Speech Three: Making a Market 103
Appendixes 115
CPI Advisory Committee 165
"David Victor's hypothetical presidential speeches contain a wealth of new ideas and insights that readers of all persuasions on this critical topic should find stimulating and useful."
— Professor M. Granger Morgan, Carnegie Mellon University
"David Victor has so artfully and persuasuvely laid out the arguments for three alternative policies toward climate change, that I found myself tempted by the logic of each! In making the best case for diametrically opposing views, he has produced an uncommonly effective teaching instrument. The format of laying out the science, and then presenting three Presidential speeches, is brilliant and highly instructive."
— William K. Reilly, President and CEO of Aqua International Partners
"David Victor's Climate Change: America's Policy Options draws from the author's extensive background in the technology, economics and politics of climate change to outline and analyze policy options in terms that will be useful to policy makers and observers alike. The key problems - scientific and economic uncertainties, emission growth in developing countries, political issues inside and outside the U.S. - are described clearly and the options described span the range of feasibility. The book should be required reading for anyone participating in the debate."
— Professor Michael May, Stanford University
David G. Victor is director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Some of his books include The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to Slow Global Warming and Technological Innovation and Economic Performance.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
In Regional Monetary Integration, Peter B. Kenen poses an important question: Should various country groups follow the lead of the European Monetary Union and form similar full-fledged monetary unions?
Walter Russell Mead recounts the story of the centuries-long rivalry between the English- speaking peoples and their enemies in God and Gold.
Complete list of CFR Books.
In this POP, Adjunct Fellow Michelle D. Gavin suggests steps the Bush administration could take to promote political and ethnic reconciliation and to restore the viability of Kenya’s governing institutions.
In this paper, Senior Fellow Daniel Markey poses a set of recommendations for the United States to consider in response to Pakistan’s ongoing political crisis.
To address the growing importance of Africa, the Council on Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs present Beyond Humanitarianism, a collection of recent work that explains underlying trends on the continent and provides an absorbing look at Africa’s emergence as a strategic player on the world stage.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1-800-537-5487, fax +1-410-516-6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1-212-434-9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
To request permission to reuse Council materials, please email publications@cfr.org or fax +1-212-434-9859.
Please include the complete information of the requested work—author, title, sections/pages to be copied or reprinted, and number of copies to be made—along with a brief description of where and how you would like to reuse the work.
You may also request permission for Council material through Copyright Clearance Center. For more information, please click on the logo below.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
