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591. Addressing the Risks of Climate Change: The Politics of the Policy Options

Author:
Elaine Kamarck
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
It often takes a long time for a policy issue to get to the point where all the complex factors required for change through the American political process come together. Take health care. President Harry Truman advocated universal health care for all Americans in the late 1940s, universal health care was provided for senior citizens and the poor in 1965, and now we are well into the 21st century and still arguing about whether and how to guarantee health care coverage for all Americans.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Environment
Political Geography:
United States and America

592. Tackling climate change, reducing poverty

Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Despite being a wealthy country, in the UK poverty is an ongoing problem. According to Oxfam GB today 1 in 5 people in the UK don't have enough to live on. There were 2.9 million children and 2.5 million pensioners living in poverty in the UK in 2006/2007. Children go to school hungry, or to bed without enough food. Poor communities are in poorer health and have shorter life expectancy.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Globalization, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

593. Eurasian Energy Security

Author:
Jeffrey Mankoff
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
For two weeks in the freezing January of 2009, homes and businesses across Europe were left without heat, the result of a murky dispute over gas prices between Russia and Ukraine. When Moscow and Kiev failed to agree on a formula for calculating price and transit fees for the coming year, the gas simply stopped flowing. Europe, which gets a significant proportion of its gas through pipelines that transit both Russia and Ukraine, bore the brunt of this confrontation between the two feuding post-Soviet neighbors.
Topic:
Security, Energy Policy, Markets, and Political Economy
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Ukraine, and Asia

594. A Fair Deal on Seabed Wealth: The Promise and Pitfalls of Article 82 on the Outer Continental Shelf

Author:
Cleo Paskal and Michael Lodge
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
Approximately 70 of the 156 States that have ratified the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea have potential Outer Continental Shelf Claims (OCS). Those claims could cover more than 15 million square kilometres of seabed. Under Article 82 of the Convention, a portion of the revenue from the extraction of non-living resources on the OCS must be disbursed 'on the basis of equitable sharing criteria, taking into account the interests and needs of developing States, particularly the least developed and the land-locked among them.' Article 82 is a unique and complex provision that does not address many of the specifics of how this is to be accomplished. The Energy, Environment and Development Programme at Chatham House is working with the body charged with applying Article 82, the International Seabed Authority, to explore in greater detail some of the critical issues of implementation while the Article is still dormant.
Topic:
International Relations, Energy Policy, Environment, International Law, Treaties and Agreements, and United Nations

595. Achieving sustainable natural resource management in the Sahel after the era of desertification

Author:
Simon Bolwig, Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde, Kjeld Rasmussen, Tine Breinholt, and Michael Mortimore
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper provides a review of the experience gained through Danish and inter-national research and development projects within the field of sustainable natural-resource management (NRM) over the last ten years in the Sahel. It is based on a larger background study edited by Bolwig, Rasmussen and Hansen (Bolwig et al. 2008b), supplemented with new material, including a questionnaire survey targeted at experienced Danish researchers and development professionals. It addresses eco-nomic, institutional, governance, gender and environmental aspects of sustainable NRM. The main themes emerging from the review concern: 1) the functioning of the agricultural market, the significance of market failures and the regulation of markets to mitigate adverse social and environmental impacts; 2) the relationship between NRM, land tenure security and property right regimes; 3) the complexities of modern – central and decentralised – and customary institutions involved in the NRM domain; and 4) the environmental and climate change trends observed in the past and foreseen for the future. For each theme, we review recent findings and discuss how these may (or should) affect policies of relevance to NRM. Relative to past policies and practices, these findings do suggest revisions. First, the need for a strengthened focus on market functioning and on increasing the economic and social benefits to the rural poor from participation in NRM-based value chains. Second, the need to adjust policies on land tenure (including land-titling ), decentralization and NRM institution-building. Finally, national strategies and action plans for combating desertification and adapting to climate change should take account of the fact that the Sahel has generally been 'greening' over the last 25 years, and that the climate change outlook may not be as bleak as often presumed.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, and International Political Economy

596. Long-Term Energy Security Risks for Europe: A Sector-Specific Approach

Author:
Christian Egenhofer, Arno Behrens, and Arianna Checchi
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The aim of the paper is to identify and evaluate existing and potential EU energy supply risks on the basis of a sector-specific approach. Moving away from common generalisations on security of energy supply as well as from those studies that focus only on one sector, it brings together all types of fuel and analyses the risks related to each of them. The result is a comprehensive picture of the energy security challenges faced by the EU in the long-term. The paper can be seen as a tool to avoid overlapping, incoherence and contradictions in the process of assessing security of supply and aims to formulate a consistent and more unified European energy policy.
Topic:
Security and Energy Policy
Political Geography:
Europe

597. European Conflict Management in the Middle East: Toward a More Effective Approach

Author:
Muriel Asseburg
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
Since the Middle East peace conferences in Madrid (1991) and Washington (1991–1993), Europeans have gradually stepped up their political involvement in the Middle East. While Europeans have had strong trade and cultural relations with their neighboring region for decades, they have, in parallel with the Middle East peace process and the development of European Union (EU) foreign policy instruments, moved to assert their political interests more forcefully. These policies have largely been motivated by geographic proximity and geopolitical considerations—chiefly, the fear of security threats emanating from Europe's neighborhood (a spillover of conflict in the form of terrorism, organized crime, migration, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction), Israel's security, and access to energy resources. The implicit assumption has been that these different European interests can best be reconciled in an environment where there is peace between Israel and its neighbors (and therefore no contradiction between good relations between the EU and Israel and good relations between the EU and the wider, resource-rich region) and where the people of the Mediterranean and the Middle East find decent living conditions in their countries. As a consequence, Europeans have first focused their efforts on the realization of a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian confl ict, which they consider to be the core of the region's instability. They have, second, aimed at supporting comprehensive peace between Israel and its neighbors. And they have, third, sought to provide an environment conducive to peace in the region as well as to deflect what were (and still are) perceived as security risks emanating from the region.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Energy Policy, International Cooperation, and Islam
Political Geography:
Europe, Washington, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and Arabia

598. The Oil Boom in the GCC Countries: Old Challenges, Changing Dynamics

Author:
Ibrahim Saif
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
The recent oil boom (2002 to mid-2008) generated a large volume of revenues for the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia (SA). Estimated at an annual average of U.S. $327 billion over the period 2002– 2006, the revenues more than doubled their average as compared with the preceding five years. The abundant revenues were instrumental in boosting economic growth; and macroeconomic indicators such as growth and investment in the GCC were also robust over the period 2002–2007. On the other hand, other indicators pertinent to the labor market, the structure of the economy, and governance were less positive.
Topic:
Economics, Energy Policy, International Organization, and Oil
Political Geography:
Middle East, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman

599. Global Welfare Implications of Carbon Border Taxes

Author:
Daniel Gros
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
This paper presents a simple, basic model to compute the welfare consequences of the introduction of a tariff on the CO 2 content of imported goods in a country that already imposes a domestic carbon tax. The main finding is that the introduction of a carbon import tariff increases global welfare (and not just the welfare of the importing country) if there is no (or insufficient) pricing of carbon abroad. A higher domestic price of carbon justifies a higher import tariff. Moreover, a higher relative intensity of carbon abroad increases the desirability of high import tariff imposed by the home country because a border tax shifts production to the importing country, which in this case leads to lower environmental costs.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Energy Policy, and Environment

600. The Case for a Gas Transit Consortium in Ukraine: A Cost-Benefit Analysis

Author:
Michael Emerson and Elena Gnedina
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The 2009 gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia has led to a severe drop in Russian gas supplies to some EU member states. The dispute has once again shown that the status quo is defective and unsustainable as a policy. This Policy Brief argues that – beyond ad hoc temporary measures, such as the monitoring by EU experts agreed on January 12th and the 2009-10 price agreement apparently reached on January 18th – the problem needs a comprehensive and robust solution. This would be a gas transit consortium, bringing all major stakeholders – Gazprom, Naftohaz, one or a few European energy companies, and the international financial institutions – to jointly manage the trans-Ukrainian trunk pipeline. The consortium agreement would be underwritten politic ally and legally by a tripartite treaty to be ratified by the EU, Russia and Ukraine. The consortium should be bound by European standards of transparency, corporate governance and accounting in order to tackle the major problem – the lack of trust – in the EU- Ukraine-Russia energy triangle.
Topic:
Economics, Energy Policy, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Ukraine