1. A Bottom-up Approach to
Mitigation for Developing Countries?
Pedcris M. Orencio
M1 76093201
2. Key Points
Bottom-up approaches such as NAMAs for developing
countries may have substantial advantages over top down
approaches
Top down approaches based on emission caps risk creating
counterproductive incentives to set overly high emission
targets or to avoid early action in order to receive greater
financing and higher caps later
Top down approaches may be in practice reduce rather
than increase the predictability of emission level and of
emission reductions against BAU baselines or meaningful
targets
Strengthening domestic institutions in developing
countries is needed for successful low carbon development
and financing program but are underemphasized in top
down approaches
3. Climate Change Mitigation
Climate change mitigation is action to decrease the
intensity of radiative forcing in order to reduce the
potential effects of global warming.
Mitigation is distinguished from adaptation to global
warming, which involves acting to tolerate the effects
of global warming.
Most often, climate change mitigation scenarios
involve reductions in the concentrations of greenhouse
gases, either by reducing the sources or by increasing
the sinks.
4. Mitigation according to IPCC
According to the WG3 of the IPCC AR4:
“stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations is possible
at a reasonable cost, with stabilization between 445ppm
and 535ppm costing less than 3% of global GDP”
Mitigation options for the main sectors in the near-term,
addressing also cross-sectorial matters such as synergies,
co-benefits, and trade-offs were provided.
Information on long-term mitigation strategies for various
stabilization levels, paying special attention to implications
of different short-term strategies for achieving long-term
goals were also provided.
7. Important Questions for Climate
Policy Making
How much is the GHG emission and how much energy
can be saved?
In what sectors and at what costs?
These questions can be determined either by top-
down or bottom up approaches
The top-down approach tends to focus more on
available technologies and their characteristics
The bottom-up approach focus on the processes within
the economy on the basis of observed historic behavior
8. Climate Policy Uncertainty Principle
Incentivizing low carbon development (Bottom-up)
Enhancing the institutional change from within
Reforming the industries will result to failure
The more imperfect the institutions, the more markets
will be missing or incomplete and the less useful price
signals will be used as a driver of change
The incentive problems brought by the absence of caps
on developing countries (Top down)
Reductions from BAU trajectories
The issue of transaction costs in establishing baselines
High emission targets or delayed implementation
9. Take for Example the Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM)
It is one of the flexibility mechanisms in the Kyoto
Protocol
Based on the idea of “emission reduction production” to
promote clean development in developing countries
The developing country gains credits from producing the
emission cuts, which are less expensive than those of Annex
I countries
10. Top Down Approach in CDM
Setting the developing countries’ binding targets to
GHG emissions
Establishing the baseline emissions for CDM based
on statistical analysis of existing model runs
Intervention of developed countries contrary to the
host state’s development framework
Issue of “low-hanging fruit” or sold-out hypothesis
Carbon leakage
Lower transaction costs using the standard BAU
approach
11. Bottom-up Approach for CDM
Ensuring concerns on the abatement costs and
potentials to society in designing the host
development country’s climate policy
Implementation of unilateral versus bilateral CDM
projects in the economics of global carbon market
to address the issue of developed countries’ over-
intervention
Issue of “additionality”
Project based approach incur more transaction
cost
12. Definitely Bottom up Approach
Potential alignment of interests between development
actions and climate mitigation
Ensures measure to address climate challenge through
rethinking the approach
Setting per capita emission caps based on current emission
levels
Satisfy political demands by making meaningful
commitments (North and South) to limit emissions
Greenhouse development rights framework
Development threshold to sustain human development
Tied to nature of economic, social and political institutions
