Lord Nicholas Stern has published a new report designed to help break the deadlock in international climate change negotiations and develop a carbon emission-reduction framework acceptable to both developed and developing economies.
Published last week and containing contributions from a number of participants, including representatives of HSBC, McKinsey, Cambridge University and the LSE, the 56-page report sets out the key elements Stern believes will be required to broker a global deal by the end of 2009.
The report analyses the implications of the UN's goal of cutting global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050 and recommends a number of measures designed to break the deadlock between developed economies, such as the US – which insist developing countries must sign up to emission-reduction targets as part of any deal – and developing economies, which wish to see industrialised nations deliver significant emission cuts first.
Stern recommends a framework for sharing emission cuts between developed and developing economies that would see developed economies agree to binding national targets now on the understanding that once they have demonstrated low carbon growth is possible, developing nations will commit by 2020 to take their per capita emissions to the global average by 2050.
The study also calls for an expansion of carbon trading, the introduction of new technology-transfer initiatives and the development of financial mechanisms to help tackle deforestation.
Lord Stern said the aim of the publication was to help provide the " analytical foundations" for discussions on a global deal, adding that it was intended as "a basis for discussion and further work, rather than attempting a very formal description of a global deal".
Former prime minister Tony Blair welcomed the report, claiming it should be "compulsory reading" for policy makers. He added that he remained committed to developing a successful post-Kyoto agreement and reiterated plans to publish his own scheme for breaking the current negotiating deadlock at this year's G8 meeting in June.
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