No. 12 - December 2008

Greetings and happy holidays!

Welcome to the December 2008 issue of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) newsletter. As always, we are happy to bring you up to date on GPPi’s activities as we move ahead towards the new year. Our newsletter appears three times a year to keep you informed about the institute, to post our newest publications, and to share interesting recent news on global public policy-making. In this edition’s “Global Issues in the News” section, we focus on global financial governance and carbon trading. For more information, please visit our homepage at www.gppi.net

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Research

Raising the Bar
Enhancing transatlantic governance of disaster relief and preparedness

Changing Rules of the Game
Global Energy Governance in the 21st Century

Learning to Build Peace?
The United Nations, Peacebuilding and Organizational Learning

The European Union, China, and Global Governance
Perceptions, Misperceptions, and Convergences

EU Foreign Policy Towards China
The Institutional Politics of Cooperation

The New Protectorates
International Administration and the Dilemmas of Governance

Crisis and Change
The UN Secretariat and the Quest for Accountability

'Brusselisation' and the emergence of a strategic culture in the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP)

Learning to Build the Rule of Law?
The Evolution of Police and Judicial Reform in EU Peace Operations 

Consulting

UNICEF Global Strategy for Collaborative Relationships and Partnerships

The Role of Private Actors in Africa's Aid Landscape: Country Case Uganda 

Networking United Nations Private Sector Focal Points

Evaluation of the Development Partnership Program of the Austrian Development Agency

Implementing the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the Gender Standby Capacity Project (Gencap)

Debate

Transatlantic Energy Security Dialogues

Global Atlanticists

Transatlantic Dialogues on Humanitarian Action

Topic 1

1. We Need a New Road Map
By: Jeffrey E. Garten, Newsweek, 20 October 2008

Summary: Recognizing that the current financial crisis will be drawn-out over the months to come, this article calls for policy-makers to look a few years ahead and plan what the global financial and economic landscape should look like. The failure to create such a vision would lead to another unsustainable global financial system headed towards disaster down the road.

This article calls for a consortium of high-level experts to take the lead and work on providing a few possibilities of where global finance should be headed. Suggesting the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel to undertake the task, the piece calls for both former officials with extensive financial experience and highly reputable thinkers to come up with recommendations and critical questions for the G7 and governments of rising economies by early 2009. It also warns of the increasing need for more common rules and institutions to be established within the global financial industry.  

2. Needed: new multilateralism
By: Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group, The Boston Globe, 20 October 2008

Summary:  This article points out that with the continuation of rising prices for food and fuel and the global economy on the downturn, the poor are most defenseless. Any measures to tackle the current global crisis must reflect the changes of a globalized world taking into account the new economic powers on the rise. As such, this article calls for a new and flexible network of multilateralism in a changing world economy where new stakeholders and their concerns are heard.

This article argues that since the financial crisis is global in scope, reforms should reflect a multilateral network approach encompassing states with a major stake in that economy. The traditional G7 constellation needs to expand to include rising economies such as China, India, Brazil, Mexico and others in the new steering group. Regular formal and informal dialogues will need to address cross-cutting issues beyond finance including energy, climate change, development and support for poorer countries. 

3. Fairness for Emerging Markets
By: Kemal Dervis, Executive Head of the U.N. Development Program,  The Washington Post, 3 November 2008

Summary: The article addresses the current financial crisis and warns of the grave impact it has on emerging market economies as this contagion spreads across the globe. Noting that in a global financial system national borders are porous, the article suggests that making massive credit lines available to most emerging economies is a crucial step in correcting this crisis and preventing a possible global economic depression.

According to the article, it would be more constructive to broaden the criteria for eligibility to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lending program to include more countries based on reasonably good economic policies over the past few years. While decisions will be based on a case-by-case basis, it should also reflect the reality of collapsing demands for export and declining private expenditures. The article also argues that IMF loans will need to be supported by the central banks from some Gulf states and China during this period.

Topic 2

1. India won’t accept emissions limits, says climate envoy
From: Randeep Ramesh, The Guardian, 8 December, 2008

Summary: In this article Shyam Saran, India’s chief negotiator at the U.N. conference on climate change in Poznan, Poland, argues that India will not volunteer to take on binding responsibilities to cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when major emitters like the U.S. refuse to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The article points out that India’s per capita GHG emissions are far less than those of the U.S. and the basis for such emissions are incomparable. “In India I need to give electricity for light bulbs to half a billion [people]. In the west you want to drive your Mercedes as fast as you want. We have 'survival' emissions, you have lifestyle emissions”.

This article urges the incoming Obama administration to take concrete steps towards reducing its carbon emissions and for developed countries to fulfil their obligations under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted in 1992 to transfer cash and know-how to developing countries to tackle climate change. According to Saran, developed countries emissions have increased rather than decreased, adding that they must demonstrate the same willingness to tackle climate change as they have shown in dealing with the failing global economy. The article also suggests that India is willing to take steps to maintain its carbon emissions below those of developed countries.   

2. International Climate Change Programs: Lessons Learned from the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme and the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism
By: United States Government Accountability Office, November 2008

Summary: This report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office on the emissions-trading scheme (ETS) and the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) calls into question the efficacy of the two programs. The report outlines various findings which question whether the programs led to significant and certifiable environmental improvements in the developing world.

The report points out that the ETS and CDM both contain loopholes which fail to produce the desired outcome because distant projects are hard to monitor and assess. Moreover, the report argues that an important concern with the design and implementation is that some people were gaming the system by shifting their economic activities from the EU to countries that do not have binding emissions limits.

3. UN climate official defends global emissions program
By: Elisabeth Rosenthal, International Herald Tribune, 5 December 2008

Summary: Responding to the report released by the U.S. government which called into question the United Nations’ emissions-trading scheme to reduce green house gases, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, defended the program and urged the US to do its part in cutting international emission levels by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. 

In this article, de Boer called the report released by the U.S. government a “constructive criticism” and pointed out that there are safeguards in place to verify that emissions reductions are real. The article notes that climate change officials around the world are meeting in Poznan, Poland, from 1-12 December 2008, to discuss a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol as the treaty expires in 2012. Although U.S. officials in Poznan represent the Bush administration, the article urges the incoming Obama administration to ratify the future climate treaty and to cap its emissions as Mr. Obama said he would during his presidential campaign.