Paris is not enough: Toward an Information Technology (IT) enabled transnational climate policy

Abstract

The 2015 Paris Agreement was undoubtedly an important diplomatic achievement. Organizations and experts have rallied around it, all the more since the attack against the agreement by the current US administration. This rally has led to a collective unwillingness to acknowledge what the evidence already tells us: the Paris Agreement and the currently dominant, international approach to climate change policy will not work. Much faster and more decisive change is needed; a paradigm shift. We need a policy which provides for a realistic yet rapid transition from our dependence on cheap fossil fuels to deep decarbonization and a sustained reliance on renewable sources of energy. We argue in this paper that, thanks to advances in Information Technology (IT) and social media, viable options exist for an alternative global, transnational climate policy. Three key principles have to be followed: (i) gradual expansion across boundaries; (ii) use of economic incentives to compel behavioral change; and (iii) a close link between the price of carbon and the use of raised funds. The funds from the climate risk surcharge collected on fossil fuels at the source, a central piece of the proposal, are to be used for subsidizing adaption to and insurance against damage from climate change. The paper argues that the challenges in terms of information requirements and institutional resistance can be overcome if IT solutions are deployed within a public-private governance framework that protects the public interest.