General Agreement on Climate Change

Burlington, Canada

General Agreement on Climate Change

As a United Nations, your task is to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.The General Agreement on Climate Change measures emission reductions in simple units. Under the GACC, eighteen countries have pledged to reduce their emissions by 1 unit a year. Six countries have made larger commitments. The United Kingdom, France, and Russia have pledged 2 units of reduction per year.Germany had pledged 4 units, Japan 5 units and the United States 7Each year, these six countries may reduce by any whole number of units up to their pledge. For example, Japan may reduce by 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 units.

Remember, if you pledge all of your credits, your economy will “decrease” by 10% that year.However, the more other countries give up their credits, the less it will cost you in the end.

Therefore, the maximum world emission reduction that is possible in any round, which is achieve if every country makes it’s full promised reduction, is 40 units

Objectives of the ParticipantsEach of your confidential instructions include a table, TABLE A, that shows how your cost each round depends on the decisions made by you and others. These costs represent, on a scale of 0 – 100 scale, that total annual economic and environmental loss to your country for a round of the GACC negotiations.

You should think of the large numbers in the table as representing very large decreases in your national welfare.A cost of 100 points might, for example, represent a loss of as much as 10% of your countries Gross National Product (measure of a countries total economic well-being).

All numbers in the table are positive… this represents the assumption that global warming is bound to result in a loss to your country through environmental damage.Table A shows how your costs depend on two factors..

Whether and how much you reduce your own emissionsTo total emission reduction achieved by all countries.

We will keep track of each countries “pledge” every year.You will fill out a tracking sheet (see next slide).This information is confidential until you hand the sheet into Mrs. FletcherAt this time, we will all see how many credits are pledged by the United NationsRemember, the more credits that are pledged, the better it is for each country in the end.

Your job is to decide whether and how much to reduce your national emissions, with the goal of making the total costs to your country over the whole simulation as small as possible.You must figure out how to resolve the tension between your preference for not reducing your own emissions and your preference that would emissions be reduces as much as possible.

To win, you must the smallest running total as this number represents the impact to your economy.

Decision Record Sheet

DECISION RECORD SHEETAMBASSADOR FROM: ______________________

ROUNDNUMBER

123456789

101112

REDUCTIONDECISION________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Random Environmental EffectsEvery three years, a natural disaster strikes.The number of countries affected depend on the number of credits pledged.

Random Environmental EffectsIF 3 – YEAR AVERAGE

SHORTFALL (AS) IS

NUMBER OF RANDOM LOSERS

NUMBER OF RANDOM WINNERS

AS 3 0 03 AS 6 1 06 AS 9 2 0

9 AS 12 3 1AS 12 4 2

Confidentiality RestrictionRemember, that your Confidential Instructions are CONFIDENTIAL and may not be shown to other participants.This is especially true for Table A and C.However, you are free to relate your “costs” verbally or write down information for sharing as desired.This preserves the real-life possibility that Ambassadors might exaggerate their country’s plight and independent verification is difficult or impossible.

QuestionsCan I emit A partial Unit?

noCan I reduce my emissions by more that I promised in the GACC?

noCan I trade emissions for money?

no

But what am I supposed to do?Don’t worry… if you are confused about what exactly you are supposed to do. Your instructions are intentionally don’t tell you whether and how much to reduce your emissions. Your job is to do as well as you can FOR YOUR COUNTRY. This means you must do your best to persuade others to reduce their emissions and decide when and under what circumstances to reduce yours.

What is my score for the game?The sum of your costs for each round.

Have Fun!!!