Climate agreements between countries should now focus on coordinated action rather than yet more targets for cutting emissions, a former adviser to the UK government told an audience at 快猫短视频 Live on 8 October.
鈥淓very man and his dog has a net-zero target now,鈥� says a senior fellow at the non-profit World Resources Institute, tells 快猫短视频. 鈥淲e鈥檝e agreed that, so what鈥檚 next?鈥�
For Sharpe, the answer is that smaller groups of nations should be working together to coordinate on policies and standards, in order to encourage more investment and accelerate action.
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鈥淲e need more focused, plurilateral diplomacy 鈥� small groups, sector by sector, that are trying to reach deeper cooperation than you can when you鈥檝e got 196 countries around the table,鈥� he says.
For example, when it comes to the steel industry, most big steel companies are multinational, says Sharpe. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 just one country that says 鈥榳e鈥檇 like to buy some zero-emission steel鈥�, it may still be too risky for them to invest, say, $2 billion in creating a new zero-emission steel plant.鈥�
But if a number of nations collectively commit to buying a certain amount of zero-emissions steel by a certain date, it is much less risky for companies. 鈥淭hen there鈥檚 a really strong signal for investment,鈥� says Sharpe.
The US, China and the European Union are the biggest markets in the world, he says, and if they worked together, they could, for instance, help accelerate the switch to electric vehicles.
鈥淭he reason is you shift investment throughout the whole industry much more quickly towards the new technology,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd you get larger economies of scale.鈥�
Similarly, if countries covering more than half the international market for a product agreed on standards for energy efficiency, they would end up becoming the global standards, he says, saving money for people and reducing emissions. That doesn鈥檛 take a lot of countries: for example, four nations account for more than half global of exports of fridges, while nine account for over half of global imports.
鈥淓verybody will come [on board] because you don鈥檛 want to be a manufacturer of a product that you can鈥檛 sell in half the global market,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hese are all really tangible ways that countries can do stuff together that makes the transition easier and makes it cost less and makes it faster.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 not saying that none of that is happening already. Some of it is, but the big picture is that we鈥檙e far from fully exploiting that potential. Absolutely miles away from it, really,鈥� says Sharpe.
If countries don鈥檛 coordinate on standards and trade, then in energy-intensive industries such as steel and cement, companies that invest in reducing emissions are going to be undercut by those that don鈥檛. To avoid this, the EU has just introduced a 鈥渃arbon border tax鈥�, which means higher import duties have to be paid on carbon-intensive goods.
But Sharpe thinks this approach risks being inadequate because it only creates a level playing field for clean technologies within the EU, not in the rest of the global market. On top of that, it could spark a counterproductive trade war.
鈥淚 think it really shows is what a staggering lack of proper climate change diplomacy we鈥檝e had so far,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 quite unbelievable, when you think about it, that the EU is so politically active on climate change, so diplomatically active, such a large economic entity, and for 30 years, it鈥檚 never occurred to the EU to sit down with the US, China and India as a small group and say, look, what do you think we should do about the decarbonisation of the hard-to-abate sectors? Could we coordinate our policies on this?鈥�
鈥淭hey鈥檝e never done that and then out of the blue, they suddenly go, hey, look, we鈥檝e got a unilateral border carbon tax,鈥� says Sharpe. 鈥淎nd then they鈥檙e surprised that countries like China and India think about suing them.鈥�
