Main Obstacle to Environmental Accords
December 12, 2007
Two words: game theory. Unfortunately, it appears that none of the global talks, accords, analyses, or studies have ever heard of the term. We hear it all the time in terms of economics, auctions, business competition, but never in regards to climate crisis solutions. Why doesn't the U.S. sign onto Kyoto? Why won't we ever sign onto ANYTHING in this area? Because China (and the "developing nations" in general) won't, and those nations would therefore enjoy an even greater competitive advantage than they already do. If that's not basic game theory, I don't know what is! Here's a definition from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
"Game theory is the study of the ways in which strategic interactions among rational players produce outcomes with respect to the preferences (or utilities) of those players, none of which might have been intended by any of them."
Why don't we hear about this when we hear about climate talks? Probably because climate talks are dominated by scientists and politicians, neither of which could be considered champions of the game theory realm. Somebody read a book already, and let's get this hammered out.
As for "Why don't we hear about this when we hear about climate talks?", most discussions do not actively invoke concepts and principles by name. That invocation is what analysts considering events ex-post do!
My PhD supervisor spent 7 years following climate change negotiations around the world. His own PhD thesis makes fascinating reading! That the various negotiators are excellent masters of the chess-play of multilateral treaty negotiations is evident at every move.
Posted by: Shefaly | December 13, 2007 at 04:57 PM