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Kyoto by any other name: Interview with Graciela Chichilnisky

To avoid catastrophic climate change, we must remove carbon already in the atmosphere: reducing emissions, while necessary, does not suffice. Kyoto Protocol Carbon Market architect has a message for Paris.

By C. J. Polychroniou and Graciela Chichilnisky
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Delegates gathering on the first day of the COP21 Climate conference in Paris.
Delegates gathering on the first day of the COP21 Climate conference in Paris.

Delegates gathering on the first day of the COP21 Climate conference in Paris. Demotix/ Francois Pauletto. All rights reserved.

World leaders gathered in Paris for the UN Climate Conference face an historic opportunity to develop an effective strategy for addressing the climate change challenge. Will they succeed? One surely hopes so. The stakes are quite high. As many world leaders are finally acknowledging, we are indeed “at a breaking point.”

But things are not that simple. Aside from the obvious problem that needs to be overcome, which is reaching a general consensus on an effective strategy for reducing emissions, one must ask whether a cap and trade strategy is sufficient at this point in averting a climate catastrophe.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0