EARTHSS 60B Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Public Good, Industrial Revolution
Professor Heidi Hardt
UCI department of Political Science
A Public Bad: The Politics of Negotiating Climate Change
● Rise in carbon emissions after industrial revolution and cold war and others
○ Large distribution and variety in CO2 use between different countries
■ Colonialism halted certain countries to develop in the future
● By exploiting labor, people, resources
○ Bigger populations could mean larger amounts of CO2 emissions
● Climate change is a “public bad”
○ Public good = good that is non excludable and non rivalrous
■ Cannot exclude anyone from using it
■ One part of it does not reduce another part
○ Public bads are also Collective Action Problems
■ Special type of public good- negatively affecting the quality of life of
everybody
■ Collective problem- no individual person has incentive to take care of it
● Climate change- no individual country wants to take the
responsibility and pay the cost, and don’t have the incentives to fix
it for everyone
● Global actors in environmental politics- assisting in helping fix climate change or adding
to the negative effects
○ MNCs- multinational corporations
○ NGOs - non-governmental organizations (individuals)
○ IOs - International Organizations (countries)
○ Epistemic communities - group of experts
● State negotiators in Paris- Facing the two-level game
○ Trying to appeal to the Domestic and the international level
Negotiations: INDIA
● Top priority is to get people out of poverty
● We need clean water, sanitation, education, birth control and contraceptive as well as
sex education
● How do we reduce carbon emissions while still developing technology and making jobs?
● How can other developed countries fund us or help us? What trade?
Document Summary
A public bad: the politics of negotiating climate change. Rise in carbon emissions after industrial revolution and cold war and others. Large distribution and variety in co2 use between different countries. Colonialism halted certain countries to develop in the future. Bigger populations could mean larger amounts of co2 emissions. One part of it does not reduce another part. Public bads are also collective action problems. Special type of public good- negatively affecting the quality of life of everybody. Collective problem- no individual person has incentive to take care of it. Climate change- no individual country wants to take the responsibility and pay the cost, and don"t have the incentives to fix it for everyone. Global actors in environmental politics- assisting in helping fix climate change or adding to the negative effects. State negotiators in paris- facing the two-level game. Trying to appeal to the domestic and the international level. Top priority is to get people out of poverty.