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Unilateral emissions mitigation, spillovers, and global learning

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  • Shurojit Chatterji
  • Sayantan Ghosal
  • Sean Walsh
  • John Whalley

Abstract

What's the role of unilateral measures in global climate change mitigation in a post-Durban, post 2012 global policy regime? We argue that under conditions of preference heterogeneity, unilateral emissions mitigation at a subnational level may exist even when a nation is unwilling to commit to emission cuts. As the fraction of individuals unilaterally cutting emissions in a global strongly connected network of countries evolves over time, learning the costs of cutting emissions can result in the adoption of such activities globally and we establish that this will indeed happen under certain assumptions. We analyze the features of a policy proposal that could accelerate convergence to a low carbon world in the presence of global learning.

Suggested Citation

  • Shurojit Chatterji & Sayantan Ghosal & Sean Walsh & John Whalley, 2013. "Unilateral emissions mitigation, spillovers, and global learning," Working Papers 2013_23, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    • Handle: RePEc:gla:glaewp:2013_23
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unilateral initiatives; mitigation; spillovers; global learning; technol- ogy transfer;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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