{ "id": "98-738", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "98-738", "active": false, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 344713, "date": "2008-11-26", "retrieved": "2016-04-07T03:00:30.901793", "title": "Global Climate Change: Three Policy Perspectives", "summary": "The 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change requires that signatories, including the United States, establish policies for constraining future emission levels of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2). The George H. W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush Administrations each drafted action plans in response to requirements of the convention. These plans have raised significant controversy and debate.\nThis debate intensified following the 1997 Kyoto Agreement, which, had it been ratified by the United States, would have committed the United States to reduce greenhouse gases by 7% over a five-year period (2008-2012) from specified baseline years. Controversy is inherent, in part, because of uncertainties about the likelihood and magnitude of possible future climate change, the consequences for human well-being, and the costs and benefits of minimizing or adapting to possible climate change. Controversy also is driven by differences in how competing policy communities view the assumptions underlying approaches to this complex issue.\nThis paper examines three starting points from which a U.S. response to the convention is being framed. These starting points, or policy \u201clenses,\u201d lead to divergent perceptions of the issue with respect to uncertainty, urgency, costs, and government roles. They also imply differing but overlapping processes and actions for possible implementation, thus shaping recommendations of policy advocates concerning the federal government\u2019s role in reducing greenhouse gases.\nA technological lens views environmental problems as the result of inappropriate or misused technologies. The solutions to the problems lie in improving or correcting technology. The implied governmental role would be to provide leadership and incentives for technological development.\nAn economic lens views environmental problems as the result of inappropriate or misleading market signals (prices). The solutions to the problems lie in ensuring that the prices of goods and services reflect their total costs, including environmental damages. The implied governmental role would be to improve the functions of the market to include environmental costs, so the private sector can respond efficiently.\nAn ecological lens views environmental problems as the result of indifference to or disregard for the planet\u2019s ecosystem on which all life depends. The solutions to the problems lie in developing an understanding of and a respect for that ecosystem, and providing people with mechanisms to express that understanding in their daily choices. The implied governmental role would be to support ecologically based education and values, as well as to promote \u201cgreen\u201d products and processes, for example through procurement policies, efficiency standards, and regulations.\nSome initiatives are underway; all the perspectives are relevant in evaluating them and possible further policies. The purpose here is not to suggest that one lens is \u201cbetter\u201d than another, but rather to articulate the implications of the differing perspectives in order to clarify terms of debate among diverse policy communities.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/98-738", "sha1": "b823b5c68769b1daf99ab4b0c2cd3fd357aa86a9", "filename": "files/20081126_98-738_b823b5c68769b1daf99ab4b0c2cd3fd357aa86a9.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/98-738", "sha1": "cb4b2923000a092cfee35509fa13a3ebd1575167", "filename": "files/20081126_98-738_cb4b2923000a092cfee35509fa13a3ebd1575167.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc97968/", "id": "98-738_2008Feb07", "date": "2008-02-07", "retrieved": "2012-08-21T08:46:06", "title": "Global Climate Change: Three Policy Perspectives", "summary": "This paper discusses the three different perspectives used to consider issues related to the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1997 Kyoto Agreement. The perspectives are: the technological lens (that environmental problems are the result of misused or inappropriate technologies that can be improved); the economic lens (that environmental problems are the result of inappropriate pricing that can be fixed by representing environmental measures in market costs); and the ecological lens (that environmental problems are the result of disregard for the ecosystem and can be improved with education and \"green\" initiatives). The report discusses each approach and how it relates to policy creation.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20080207_98-738_afc930aadb17094565e978a22ffca1f4b55de620.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20080207_98-738_afc930aadb17094565e978a22ffca1f4b55de620.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Global climate change", "name": "Global climate change" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Global warming", "name": "Global warming" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Global warming -- Law and legislation", "name": "Global warming -- Law and legislation" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc814926/", "id": "98-738_2007Feb09", "date": "2007-02-09", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Global Climate Change: Three Policy Perspectives", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20070209_98-738_6a28d33cf7f3cd83724f25a9e8bfba2f7ec34ca8.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20070209_98-738_6a28d33cf7f3cd83724f25a9e8bfba2f7ec34ca8.html" } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "Economic Policy", "Energy Policy", "Environmental Policy", "Foreign Affairs" ] }