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An experimental investigation into ‘pledge and review’ in climate negotiations

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  • Scott Barrett

    (Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs & Earth Institute)

  • Astrid Dannenberg

    (University of Kassel
    University of Gothenburg)

Abstract

A novelty of the new Paris Agreement is the inclusion of a process for assessment and review of countries’ nationally determined pledges and contributions. The intent is to reveal whether similar countries are making comparable pledges, whether the totality of such pledges will achieve the global goal, and whether, over the coming years, the contributions actually made by countries will equal or exceed their pledges. The intent is also to provide an opportunity for countries to express their approval, or disapproval, of the pledges and contributions made by individual countries. Here we report the results of a lab experiment on the effects of such a process in a game in which players choose a group target, declare their individual pledges, and then make voluntary contributions to supply a public good. Our results show that a review process is more likely to affect targets and pledges than actual contributions. Even when a review process increases average contributions, the effect is relatively small. As the window for achieving the 2 °C goal will close soon, our results suggest that, rather than merely implement the Paris Agreement, negotiators should begin now to develop complementary approaches to limiting emissions, including the adoption of agreements that are designed differently than the one adopted in Paris.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott Barrett & Astrid Dannenberg, 2016. "An experimental investigation into ‘pledge and review’ in climate negotiations," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 339-351, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:138:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-016-1711-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-016-1711-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. > Environmental and Natural Resource Economics > Climate economics > International agreements > Experimental evidence

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    Cited by:

    1. Harstad, Bård, 2023. "Pledge-and-review bargaining," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    2. Valentina Bosetti & Melanie Heugues & Alessandro Tavoni, 2017. "Luring others into climate action: coalition formation games with threshold and spillover effects," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(2), pages 410-431.
    3. Bård Harstad, 2023. "Pledge-and-Review Bargaining: from Kyoto to Paris," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(651), pages 1181-1216.
    4. Alt, Marius & Gallier, Carlo & Kesternich, Martin & Sturm, Bodo, 2023. "Collective minimum contributions to counteract the ratchet effect in the voluntary provision of public goods," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    5. Sturm, Bodo & Pei, Jiansuo & Wang, Ran & Löschel, Andreas & Zhao, Zhongxiu, 2019. "Conditional cooperation in case of a global public good – Experimental evidence from climate change mitigation in Beijing," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Ertör-Akyazi, Pinar & Akçay, Çağlar, 2021. "Moral intuitions predict pro-social behaviour in a climate commons game," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    7. Filipe Duarte Santos & Tim O’Riordan & Miguel Rocha de Sousa & Jiesper Strandsbjerg Tristan Pedersen, 2023. "The Six Critical Determinants That May Act as Human Sustainability Boundaries on Climate Change Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-20, December.
    8. Zhi Li & Dongsheng Chen & Pengfei Liu, 2023. "Assurance payments on the coordination of threshold public goods provision: An experimental investigation," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(2), pages 407-436, April.
    9. Hofmann, Elisa & Kyriacou, Lucas & Schmidt, Klaus M., 2021. "A Model United Nations Experiment on Climate Negotiations," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 266, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    10. Koessler, Ann-Kathrin, 2022. "Pledges and how social influence shapes their effectiveness," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    11. Nyborg, Karine, 2018. "Reciprocal climate negotiators," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 707-725.
    12. Damien Besancenot & Radu Vranceanu, 2019. "Pledges as a Social Influence Device: Experimental Evidence," Working Papers hal-02176269, HAL.
    13. Fredrik Carlsson & Claes Ek & Andreas Lange, 2021. "All It Takes Is One: The Effect of Weakest-Link and Summation Aggregation on Public Good Provision under Threshold Uncertainty," CESifo Working Paper Series 9457, CESifo.
    14. Joseph E. Aldy & Richard Zeckhauser, 2020. "Three prongs for prudent climate policy," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(1), pages 3-29, July.
    15. David M. McEvoy & Tobias Haller & Esther Blanco, 2022. "The Role of Non-Binding Pledges in Social Dilemmas with Mitigation and Adaptation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 81(4), pages 685-710, April.
    16. Fredrik Carlsson & Claes Ek & Andreas Lange, 2024. "One bad apple spoils the barrel? Public good provision under threshold uncertainty," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 27(3), pages 664-686, July.
    17. Piotr Żebrowski & Ulf Dieckmann & Åke Brännström & Oskar Franklin & Elena Rovenskaya, 2022. "Sharing the Burdens of Climate Mitigation and Adaptation: Incorporating Fairness Perspectives into Policy Optimization Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-24, March.
    18. Christoph Böhringer & Carsten Helm & Laura Schürer, 2023. "How to Boost Countries’ Climate Ambitions: Turning Gains from Emissions Trading into Gains for Climate," CESifo Working Paper Series 10624, CESifo.

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