The reduction of CO2 emissions be possible? / Robert Douglas Cairns, Professor, McGill University

November 12, 2019

Questions: 1/ Do you think that the larger polluters will one day make possible an agreement aimed at the reduction of CO2 emissions? 2/ Do you believe that there is little hope that the polluting countries will reduce much more than they pollute ? How do you explain your pessimism? 3/ Will arguments developed by some countries, like India, promote a conclusion of such an agreement? 4/ Did Conferences of the Parties (COP) contribute to bringing closer different States approches on climate change ?

Speakers

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    Rabah Arezki
    Patrick Bolton
    Maurice Obstfeld
    June 4, 2018
    Reducing carbon emissions is the most complex political and economic problem humanity has ever confronted. Coping with the Climate Crisis brings together leading experts from academia and policy circles to explore issues related to the implementation of the COP21 Paris Agreement and the challenges of accelerating the transition toward sustainable development. The book synthesizes the key insights that emerge from the latest research in climate-change economics in an accessible and ...
  • Authors
    Benjamin Augé
    May 23, 2018
    The fall in oil prices, which began in fall 2014, had a significant influence on the strategies of the key players in the oil industry in Africa. The continent’s oil sector has experienced deep-reaching changes, ranging from a drop in exploration budgets, the disappearance or sale of weakened companies, the reorganization or pullback of the traditional oil majors, the establishment of new companies and the arrival of state-owned companies attracted by the crisis-induced windfall eff ...
  • Authors
    May 11, 2018
    Awad Ibrahim, chairman of the Lybian Organisation of Policies and Strategies (LOPS), one of the few think tanks in this violence-torn country, has escaped to establish contacts with his African colleagues at the African Think Tank Summit held in Rabat from May 9th to 11th. For a few years he was Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy in his country, and later appointed Deputy Prime minister. At times Awad Ibrahim fears for his life, but he believes a political solution between ...
  • April 26, 2018
    This paper reports the results of an application using an interregional input-output matrix for Morocco together with regional information on water consumption by sectors. We develop a trade-based index that reveals the relative water use intensities associated with specific interregional and international trade flows. We estimate, for each flow associated with each origin-destination pair, measures of trade in value added and trade in water that are further used to calculate our in ...
  • Authors
    Sabine Cessou
    April 16, 2018
    La conférence organisée par l'Institut Montaigne et l'OCP Policy Center à Paris le 12 avril a abordé la question de l'investissement étranger dans une Afrique perçue à la fois comme une menace et un nouvel eldorado en Europe. "L’Afrique et l’Europe sont dans une même voiture, à  l’avenir elles peuvent aller très haut et très vite ou se fracasser contre un mur", a affirmé Jean-Michel Huet, consutant pour Bearing Point. Son regret : que l'Afrique soit un sujet encore très peu perçu pa ...
  • Authors
    April 16, 2018
    The launch of an oil futures contract on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) cannot be merely seen as a “technical” or secondary event, as it foreshadows what global commodities markets will become in a few years. The Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) and the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) have, indeed, seen their trading volumes increase significantly over the past decade thanks to steel and iron ore, which could suggest that the move is, in fact, not that unprecedente ...
  • Authors
    April 10, 2018
    Le lancement d’un contrat à terme pétrolier sur le Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) ne saurait être vu comme un évènement « technique » ou secondaire tant il préfigure ce que seront dans quelques années les marchés mondiaux de matières premières. Le Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) et le Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ont certes vu leurs volumes de trading augmenter considérablement sur la dernière décennie grâce à l’acier et au minerai de fer, ce qui pourrait laisser à ...
  • Authors
    March 15, 2018
    President Trump’s proclamation that, because of national security concerns, he will apply a 25% tariff on all steel and a 10% tariff on all aluminium imports into the United States – except provisionally and dependent on NAFTA negotiations those from Canada and Mexico – affects, respectively 5.1 billion Euros and 1.1 billion Euros of EU exports. These are not trivial sums. However, the invocation of the national security exception in this case has implications that go far beyond nar ...
  • Authors
    March 14, 2018
    Commodities are at the very heart of economic activity. From oil to wheat, from aluminum to coffee or rubber, we are all, in one way or another and to varying degrees, dependent on commodities. Different in terms of their physical properties but governed by common economic mechanisms, traded on global and oligopolistic markets, subject to intense competitive pressures and speculative bets, often marked by highly volatile prices, objects of geopolitical rivalries or cooperatives stra ...
  • Authors
    Khalid Berradi
    Global Nexus
    December 22, 2017
    On November 9th, 2017, over 1,000 students and professionals convened at Harvard University for the 11th annual Harvard Arab Conference to discuss key issues across the region. The four-day conference promoted a forward-looking approach to seek innovative solutions to the political, economic, and social gaps that persist across the Arab World.  Conference attendees included government ministers, award-winning actors, former heads of state, students, and various other participants. T ...