ABSTRACT
The science and economics of climate change is by now well known. However, no harm will be done by briefly recounting them. Anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) tend to concentrate in the upper echelons of the atmosphere and impede outgoing infrared radiation from the earth’s surface, resulting in a gradual rise of the earth’s average surface temperature. This phenomenon is, popularly, known as global warming, although this is only one of the varied climate change effects of the increased average temperature of the earth. On the other hand, the basic economics of climate change is that it is a major global disexternality ensuing from an economic activity conducted at the local level. This asymmetry in turn opens up the possibility of a divorce between the causers (or contributors) and the victims of climate change. While the two groups are not always mutually exclusive, in a broad categorization in the real world the former is associated with the developed countries (Annex B countries 1 ) and the latter with the developing countries (Non-Annex B countries). For more than a century, Annex B countries have emitted beyond the absorptive capacity of the atmosphere. On the other hand, non-Annex B countries, which include the South Asian countries, have historically been and continue to be low emitters. The latter, however, are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In other words, even though the developed countries have been primarily instrumental in causing climate change, it is the developing countries that are poised to bear the brunt of it. Naturally then it has become customary to refer to the developed and developing countries respectively as the causers and the victims of climate change.
