Global Economy

Dubbed "Nopenhagen," the Copenhagen Accord reached at the eleventh hour has been criticized by many as not going far enough. But CIGI Distinguished Fellow Johan Whalley sees it as an historic and landmark document in the emerging economic architecture of the twenty-first century.

Two vitally important policy areas – trade and climate change - are intersecting, posing difficult questions about how to provide effective action on climate change without damage to the international trading system. On October 26-27, 2009, experts from both fields discussed the risks and possibilities for dealing with them. The participants focussed on a few key issues. The great difficulty of dealing with border carbon adjustments came in for a good deal of emphasis - but while there was a shared view that it would be best to avoid them entirely it was recognized that unfortunately they are likely to be part of the mix. On the other hand, it was felt that the prospects of accommodating “green” subsidies in the trading system are more promising, and with respect to subsidies and special fiscal arrangements a strong case was made for cutting back the very large amounts that support the production and consumption of fossil fuels.

Foreign Affairs and Americas Quarterly recently reviewed Which Way Latin America, edited by CIGI Distinguished Fellows Andrew F. Cooper and Jorge Heine. The book provides up-to-date analysis of the new sources of political power and allegiances in Latin America today.

Roberto Mangaberia Unger, Roscoe Pound Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, gave a keynote address at CIGI’09. He spoke about the global financial and economic crisis, arguing that it offered an opportunity to overthrow “a dictatorship of no alternatives,” but that this opportunity has been largely squandered. Unger called for a debate, built on ideas and imagination, which will bring a liberation from conformity and alter the course of globalization.