Why Climate Action Needs Globalization:
Mitigation: A global agreement on reducing emissions is crucial. Globalization offers bargaining chips like technology transfer and financing incentives for emission cuts. Information and Monitoring: Global dialogue improves understanding and reduces misunderstandings. Open societies are necessary for effective monitoring of climate actions. Implementation: Large-scale production of climate-friendly capital stock, investments, financing, and innovation are needed. Global supply chains are essential for sourcing critical materials and reducing costs. Livelihoods: Adaptation in agriculture requires significant investments and financing. Access to financing enables farmers to adopt new technologies and crops, reducing out-migration.

Pushback on Globalization:
Protectionism and geopolitical concerns are driving deglobalization. Concerns about overreliance on specific countries for resources and potential sanctions. Globalization is perceived as benefiting the wealthy at the expense of the working class.

Respecting Concerns about Globalization:
Balance globalization with national interests and priorities. Address inequality and ensure benefits are shared more equitably. Promote fair trade and labor standards to protect workers’ rights. Support developing countries in building resilience and adapting to climate change. Invest in education and skills development to prepare workers for a changing job market.

Adaptation and Financing:
Poor countries will require external financing for climate adaptation. Agriculture-dependent individuals need to transition to more productive sectors like manufacturing and services. Export-led growth, particularly to northern countries less affected by climate change, is crucial for developing countries. Geographic diversification of supply chains enhances resilience to climate risks. Global markets, being more resilient to supply shocks, benefit from globalization.

Migration and Preparation:
Climate change will make regions like Canada, Greenland, and Siberia more habitable. Uncoordinated migration will lead to pushback and hostility. Coordinated migration, considering skills, needs, and acceptance, is necessary. Creating a global market for labor can serve aging populations and prepare for climate refugees.

Globalization’s Challenges:
Uniform global rules may diminish democracy and increase inequality. Globalization has led to job losses in small-town manufacturing, exacerbating regional disparities. The rise of China as a global power adds complexity to the globalized world.

Maintaining Global Connectivity:
To prevent regional blocs and isolation, minimum flows, dialogue, and investment must be maintained. Subsidiarity, focusing on local decision-making, can enhance democratic control. Liberalizing services trade can create new opportunities and shift focus away from opposing existing manufacturing. Reforming multilateral institutions is essential for effective climate action.

Carbon Tax and Subsidiarity:
A global carbon tax is necessary but politically challenging and unfair to countries like Tanzania. Subsidiarity suggests that a global carbon tax may not be the most efficient solution for all countries.

A Fair and Decentralized Global Carbon Tax System:
Raghuram Rajan proposes a global carbon tax system that incorporates fairness and encourages emission reductions. Over-emitting countries pay into a global fund, while under-emitting countries receive funds. The system ensures fairness by considering per capita emissions and provides incentives for reducing emissions. It is self-financing, generates $100 billion annually, and aligns with rich countries’ commitment to support poor countries.

Preserving Global Interaction Amidst Sanctions:
Rajan emphasizes the need to preserve some global interaction, particularly in essential areas like food, medicines, and energy. He suggests shielding certain activities, including those crucial for climate action, from sanctions. This would maintain a level of globalization and prevent open warfare.

Liberalizing Services for Economic Growth and Climate Benefits:
Rajan advocates for liberalizing trade in services, as it has a significant share in GDP and allows services to be provided remotely. This can create livelihoods, reduce inequality, and promote affordable high-quality services. It also has a low climate impact compared to manufacturing and could help countries like India grow without damaging the world economy.

Expanding Imagination and Overcoming Political Barriers:
Rajan emphasizes the need to break down barriers and expand imagination to facilitate liberalization in services. He suggests mutual recognition of qualifications and equivalence exams to enable professionals to provide services across borders. This would require political will and a willingness to explore new possibilities.

Multilateral Institutions as Honest Brokers:
Rajan stresses the importance of multilateral institutions playing an honest broker role in a world with multiple polarities. These institutions should create agendas that are credible to all parties and mediate between warring parties. They should promote fairness, encourage cooperation, and address global challenges effectively.

Political Capital Allocation:
Globalization and climate action are elite projects that require significant political capital. De-globalization cannot be a solution to the need for climate action, as both require political capital.

Rodney King’s Plea for Cooperation:
Rajan quotes Rodney King’s plea for cooperation during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. He emphasizes the need for cooperation in addressing climate degradation and the importance of getting along.

Minimum Cooperation and Mutual Understanding:
Maintaining minimum cooperation is crucial for addressing climate change, despite differences and conflicts. Rajan expresses hope that cooperation will lead to mutual understanding and improved relationships.

Conclusion:
Rajan’s lecture highlights the need for continued globalization and climate action while preserving minimum cooperation and striving for mutual understanding.

Contradictions in Political Approaches:
Politicians are aware of the need for climate action but continue to promote protectionist policies.

Migration Framework:
A framework of mitigation, adaptation, and migration is used to discuss the complexities of climate-related migration.

Challenges in Migration Policy:
The southern border of Mexico illustrates the difficulties in finding common ground on migration policies due to deep political divisions. Legal migration into the United States has significantly declined, leading to a shortage of workers. The involvement of drug cartels in human trafficking and drug trafficking complicates migration issues. The U.S. government’s arming of cartels further hinders rational migration policies.

Global Cooperation and Solutions:
The need for global discussions on managing migration is emphasized. Current policies are likened to an ostrich mentality, avoiding the issue rather than finding solutions. Finding a balance between facilitating migration and managing its impact is crucial.

Additional Considerations:
Carbon capture preservation could be included in the design of the global fund’s transfer mechanism. The limited carbon budget necessitates urgent action and cooperation to address climate-related migration.

Funding and Urgency:
The global reduction of carbon emissions is essential, and time is crucial. Convincing people to fund this global public good quickly is necessary, and the mechanism must incentivize rapidity and speed.

Adaptation vs Mitigation Trade-Offs:
As mitigation efforts may not be effective enough, there is a risk of diverting resources from mitigation to adaptation. A sliding scale approach could be considered, with higher carbon taxes for industrial countries focused on mitigation and lower taxes for poorer countries prioritizing adaptation.

Excess Forests and Carbon Credits:
The scheme can be adapted to incorporate excess forests and carbon credits, accounting for countries that preserve forests and those that manufacture for the world.

Youth Inclusion in Climate Advocacy:
Youth in Australia can engage in climate advocacy by pushing politicians to move faster on climate action and supporting a global agreement.

Redistributive Policies and the Marginalized:
Climate change and globalization disproportionately affect marginalized groups, including youth. Compensation for the losers is necessary, but more should be done to address the specific challenges faced by these groups.

Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies:
Poorer countries may need to focus more on adaptation, while richer countries can prioritize mitigation. This distinction could inform carbon tax policies, with higher taxes for countries emphasizing mitigation and lower taxes for those prioritizing adaptation.

International Cooperation and Agreement:
A global agreement is essential for addressing climate change effectively. Time is of the essence, and action needs to be taken before the current US administration’s term ends.

Benefits vs Costs:
Globalization and climate change policies share a common challenge: the benefits are long-term, while the costs are immediate. Immediate costs are easier to identify and are often borne by a localized vocal group, making it politically difficult to implement these policies.

Globalization Characteristics:
One of the main reasons for deglobalization is the immediate costs associated with it, such as job losses in traditional manufacturing and agriculture. The benefits of globalization, such as increased economic growth and innovation, are more long-term and spread out, making them harder to appreciate in the short term.

Culture and Politics:
Culture and politics can lead to irrational economic decisions, including those related to climate change and migration. Public pressure may eventually drive action on these issues, but there is a risk that countries may continue to ignore the negative consequences for an extended period.

Tipping Point:
It is uncertain whether there is a tipping point where cultural and political irrationality gives way to economic pragmatism. The hope is that as the reality of the negative consequences of inaction becomes more evident, public pressure will force governments to take action.

Global Effects of Local Policies:
Populist politicians often focus on immediate negative consequences of policies, making it difficult for pragmatic politicians to advocate for long-term benefits.

First-Round vs. Long-Term Effects:
Raghuram Rajan emphasizes the distinction between the immediate negative impacts and the positive long-term effects of certain policies like carbon taxes and immigration. Populist politicians find it easier to communicate the immediate negative impacts, while pragmatic politicians struggle to explain the long-term benefits.

Importance of Trust in Politicians:
Rajan highlights the challenge of implementing long-term policies in an era where trust in politicians has declined. Populace may resist policies that are perceived to have negative short-term consequences, such as immigration or carbon taxes, even if they offer long-term benefits.

Balancing Subsidiarity and Multilateralism:
Dale Vasquez raises the issue of reconciling the principle of subsidiarity (local control) with the need for a multilateral approach to service liberalization. Rajan suggests a compromise: a global test with the option for local equivalence exams, allowing for both global standards and local variations.

Migration and Global Interdependence:
Rajan emphasizes the interconnectedness of the world and the necessity of addressing global issues, such as migration, to avoid negative consequences. He urges countries to work together on solutions, recognizing that they cannot remain immune to the effects of events in other parts of the world.