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Implications of a dynamic target of greenhouse gases emission reduction: the case of Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2002

Vincente Barros
Affiliation:
Universidad de Buenos Aires
Mariana Conte Grand
Affiliation:
Universidad del CEMA, Córdoba 374, 1054 Buenos Aires (CF), Argentina. Email: mcg@cema.edu.ar

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the greenhouse gases (GHG) emission target adopted by Argentina. It contains a summary of the process that led to the formulation of the emission target, including GHG inventories, macroeconomic and sectoral projections, and mitigation options. Fixed and dynamic indexes such as the Carbon Intensity Index are discussed, concluding that the latter is not appropriate for most developing countries. This is the case, in particular, for countries whose GHG emissions are not solely dependent on GDP growth, but also on other variables, such as international prices and market conditions for their agricultural products. The index recommended for Argentina was based on the square root of GDP. It went a step further by producing, for the chosen level of reduction, not only a positive relation between GDP and allowable emissions, but also a relation of the same sign between GDP and emission reductions.

Type
Policy Options
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The authors were part of the sicentific-technical team convened in 1999 to determine Argentina's emissions target: Vicente Barros was the project coordinator. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Jorge Lozanoff for the numerus comments he contributed to an earlier version of this work; to Fabián Gaioli for his valuable contribution (in particular to section 2.4.), and they wish to thank participants to Seminars at Torcuato Di Tella University, CEMA University, Meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (Rio, 2000), and Meeting of the Argentine Association of Political Economy (Córdoba, 2000), for their remarks.