About the Lecture

The Paris Agreement on climate change proposes to restrict global warming “well below” 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial temperature. But a more ambitious goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius proposed by the small low-lying island states is also under consideration. However, these island states neither have enough emissions that if reduced can help restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius nor enough resources to pay the rest of the world for its net cost of restricting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This raises some deep questions concerning sovereignty, equity and fairness in tackling climate change. I conclude by arguing that rather than compromise on the target for limiting temperature rise, it may be better to give aid to the small low-lying island states.

About the Speaker

Parkash Chander, Professor of Economics and Executive Director of Center for Environmental Economics and Climate Change at Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, an Associate Editor of Journal of Public Economic Theory, a member of the Advisory Board of Journal of Economic Surveys, and a member of the International Advisory Board of Singapore Economic Review. He has previously held professorial positions at Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi and National University of Singapore (in reverse order). He was formerly Head of Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi and Head of Department of Economics, National University of Singapore.

He has researched primarily in the areas of public economics, environmental economics, and game theory and its applications to climate change. His publications include articles in Econometrica, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Theory and other leading journals in economics. He has recently completed a book on climate change. He has also written on policy matters in national newspapers and magazines.

Professor Chander has held visiting appointments at Johns Hopkins University, California Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University, and CORE (Louvain-la-Neuve) among other institutions.