1Symposium on International Climate Negotiations

Once again there is hope that a strong international agreement will emerge from the annual—now the 21st annual—United Nations Conference of the Parties. Before Kyoto, we hoped that the new Protocol would eventually grow into a universal commitment similar to reducing emissions by some percent below 1990 levels, and this would translate into a uniform price on carbon. Instead, repeated negotiation failures led the world to abandon the ideas of having a common commitment and a uniform price after the Copenhagen conference. In the hope of finding a way to repair these failures, we invited renowned experts on climate policy and the economics of cooperation, not just to present their ideas, but to discuss and debate them as they wrote their papers. The continuing discussion has been lively. All authors agree that what was lost at Copenhagen needs to be rediscovered, and that carbon price coherence is not all that is needed, but it is an essential element. While all agree that carbon price coherence is central, that is of no value if it cannot be negotiated. And that negotiation failure has been the sticking point for two decades. A better approach to negotiation will be needed, and so we have made “how to negotiate ” the focus of this symposium. This focus requires a distinction that is often overlooked. Two thing