Jacoby Raises Climate Change Concerns at UNU-WIDER Conference

Former Joint Program Co-Director Henry “Jake” Jacoby discussed the impact of climate change policies on both developing and developed countries at the 30th Anniversary Conference of UNU-WIDER, a leading forum for development economics. Held in Helsinki, Finland on September 17-19, the conference drew top experts in the field, including a number of Nobel Prize winners.

Jacoby called expected pledges at the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) insufficient to meet global climate targets, but a step in the right direction. Stabilizing the climate over the long term, he said, will require the establishment of an ongoing, credible, timely process to review pledges; periodic cycles of new, more stringent pledges; and sustained financial support to enable developing countries to meet their climate targets, many of which are contingent on such funding.

During his presentation, Jacoby showed how he applied the MIT Economic Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) Model to assess emissions outcomes of expected COP21 pledges and national performance in meeting them, and lay out the components of a successful launch of a new climate regime.

Jacoby was just one of two UNU-WIDER Conference presenters to emphasize the strong impact of climate change—and climate change policies--policies on development economics. The other, keynote/closing speaker and Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, devoted his entire talk to climate change.