Abstract

We investigate whether progress towards an international treaty on greenhouse gas emissions could benefit from insights about tipping a non-cooperative game from an inefficient to an efficient equilibrium. Games with increasing differences have multiple equilibria and have a “tipping set,” a subset of agents who by changing from the inefficient to the efficient equilibrium can induce all others to do the same. We argue that international climate negotiations form such a game and so have a tipping set. This can provide a novel perspective on finding a way forward in climate negotiations.

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Citation

Heal, Geoffrey, and Howard Kunreuther. "Tipping Climate Negotiations." In Climate Change and Common Sense: Essays in Honour of Tom Schelling. Ed. Robert Hahn and Alastair Ulph. Oxford: Oxford University Press, January 2012.

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