Adam Smith at the COP - The political economy of climate change

This event is held by Global Ethical Finance Initiative in partnership with Royal London and the Adam Smith Business School - University of Glasgow.

About this event 

Who should pay for climate action?

This evening lecture will draw inspiration from Book IV of the Wealth of Nations. Chapter update author, economist and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, Sir Anton Muscatelli will be joined by Selwyn Hart, Associate Secretary General of the UN, as well as other speakers to be confirmed. Together, they will connect the political economy of Smith to the negotiations taking place around them.

The distribution between groups in society that concerned Smith and his contemporaries and followers might seem removed from the day-to-day operation of the negotiations, but ‘who pays?’ is now the central question underlying any COP. From the development paths available to poorer nations, to any compensation richer nations must offer them to compensate for following low-carbon development paths, to the question of how the carbon transition is financed through loans and grants, to the distribution of rights and responsibilities within countries, political economy is at the heart of climate