International climate change cooperation and sustainable economic growth

The heads of the G8 governments, meeting in July 2005, called it a “serious and long-term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe.”1 In the most definitive statement yet delivered by global business leaders, a group meeting in advance of the G8 argued that “climate change poses one of the most significant challenges of the 21st century.”2 2. The need for action is clear. [...] It also explored the temperature thresholds that could trigger irreversible catastrophic events such as the melting of the Greenland icecap and the shutdown of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation that warms the North Atlantic countries. [...] A key guiding criterion for any post-2012 international regime on climate change is the extent to which it contributes to the basic objective of the UNFCCC, by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. [...] The benefits of breadth of coverage obviously need to be weighed in each case against the difficulties that might be anticipated in the course of negotiating and implementing that coverage. [...] Second, it should be flexible enough to seamlessly incorporate actions taken at various levels, from sub-national efforts to industry-led efforts to the efforts of sub-sets of UNFCCC Parties in the pursuit of the Convention’s objectives, such that the “orchestra” of efforts achieves some harmony.