Laurence Tubiana: A new DNA for climate policy at WES2018

At the Warwick Economics Summit 2018, Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation, discussed the actions currently being undertaken worldwide to combat climate change in the aftermath of the 2015 COP21 Paris Agreement and questioned, more importantly, are we doing enough?

The Paris Agreement was about economic compromise, not climate…

Ms. Tubiana is a leader in climate change policy making. Having worked as a research director for the French Institute for Agricultural Research, she went on to serve as Senior Adviser for the Environment to former Prime Minister Lionel Joseph under the Kyoto Protocol. She is also a founder of the Paris-based Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) as well as Solagral, an NGO working on food security and the global environment.

Notably, Ms. Tubiana played an integral role in preparing the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference, a landmark agreement signed by 195 countries that focused on limiting a further rise in global temperatures through the reduction of global carbon emissions. “The Paris Agreement was about economics compromise, not climate”, remarked Ms. Tubiana, “the idea was not to have a very stringent framework for everyone, but have each country set their own goals”.

We are not implementing policy fast enough…

But three years later, does she think we’re still headed in the right direction? The simplest answer is, no.

“We are not investing enough in the technology that is needed, and we are not implementing policy fast enough”, Tubiana argued. Emissions in China are still rising and are forecast to peak 5 years past the original target of 2020. Furthermore, whilst renewable energy sources such as Solar and Wind are now cheaper to produce than their non-renewable counterparts, investors and governments are still doubtful of their profitability and longevity.

The actions of the United States reflect the wider political threat to climate change policy…

Perhaps the most damaging development is President Trump’s June 2017 decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement. As the second largest producer of CO₂ in the world behind China, the withdrawal exposes the current administration’s stance of ‘economy over the environment’.

Whilst some may have seen this as the beginning of the end for the global fight against climate change, Tubiana admitted it was less disruptive than she would have anticipated; “I was impressed by the fact that not a single country decided to follow them [the US]”, noting that, “in 1997 when the Kyoto Protocol was conceived, the US decision to refrain from signing meant other nations such as Canada and Australia followed suit – this has not been the case with the Paris Agreement”. Even within the US, states such as California have remained stoic, emphasising that they will uphold the measures of the agreement despite the actions of the federal government.

If we don’t address the social issues in our climate change policy, we will lose the political battle for climate change…

Regardless, the actions of the United States government reflect the wider political threat to climate change policy and its innovative implementation. And so, to combat the views held by those such as the Trump administration, Tubiana stresses that our approach to climate change policy needs to change: “Today we are facing many political challenges; if we don’t address the social issues in our climate change policy, such as the creation of new jobs in a sustainable future, we will lose the political battle for climate change”.

Ultimately, policy needs to shift away from focusing on the negative effects of climate change and move towards stressing how adopting a more sustainable policy will benefit the world economy in the future. This can, and should, start with students challenging current social and political attitudes towards climate change. “We need to push forward the economic benefits of a global fight against climate change”, Tubiana remarked, “policy is not about rational choices, it is about enlightening the future”.