Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security

Developments over the past few years have shown that reforms to address climate change are no less difficult to implement than reforms in other areas, even if the objective of limiting global warming is broadly accepted. In the case of global public goods such as the climate, the political challenge is further complicated by the need to convince voters that domestic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is worth taking, notwithstanding the cost and uncertainties regarding other countries’ commitments. This paper seeks to draw a number of political-economy lessons from reform experience in other economic areas, and considers how these lessons can be applied to the particular case of climate change mitigation policy. It examines the main ingredients for building a constituency for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction policies at home, stressing the need to establish the credibility of the overall objective and intermediate targets. It also reviews the challenges faced in securing successful implementation of the least-cost set of policies, focusing on how to address the concerns raised by the uneven distribution of costs and benefits of pricing instruments without undermining their effectiveness.