Global Governance to Support Climate as a Public Good

Mark CARNEY * UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance.

The stability of our climate is a global public good whose benefits far outweigh its cost of provision. The nature of free riding means that a stable climate is threatened by three tragedies: of the commons, of the horizon, and of the shift from moral to market sentiments.

Preserving a stable climate requires coordination among nation states with different interests, financial resources, and state capacities. Through the United Nations climate change process, this coordination is beginning to happen. By creating a consensus at the global and national levels on the need to preserve our climate, the dynamism of the private sector is now being unleashed. When society sets a clear goal, it becomes profitable to be part of the solution, and costly to remain part of the problem.

Reforms to the plumbing of the financial sector will amplify and accelerate public climate action. Transition planning by all actors is essential.

The provision of public goods within a country is typically supported by national governments. Global public goods are more challenging because they require international cooperation across different economic, legal, and financial regimes, and amongst countries with varying resources and state capacities.A stable climate is a global public good whose benefits far outweigh the costs of its provision. International efforts to limit climate change reflect the synergies and tensions that arise between binding commitments and voluntary objectives, between a global architecture and national sovereignty, and between public policies and private action.Despite challenges, a coherent global governance framework is emerging to address this existential imperative. That framework is increasingly being replicated at the level of the nation and within…