Microeconomics

Table of Contents

1. Topic pack - Microeconomics - introduction
2. 1.1 Competitive Markets: Demand and Supply
3. 1.1 Competitive Markets: Demand and Supply - notes
4. 1.1 Competitive markets - questions
5. 1.1 Competitive markets - simulations and activities
6. 1.2 Elasticities
7. 1.2 Elasticities - notes
8. Section 1.2 Elasticities - questions
9. Section 1.2 Elasticities - simulations and activities
10. 1.3 Government intervention
11. 1.3 Government Intervention - notes
12. 1.3 Government intervention - questions
13. 1.3 Government intervention - simulations and activities
14. 1.4 Market failure
15. 1.4 Market failure - notes
16. Section 1.4 Market failure - questions
    1. Market failure - short answer
    2. Externalities - short answer
    3. Externalities & allocative efficiency - short answer
    4. Externalities - self-test questions
    5. Public goods - short answer
    6. Merit goods - short answer
    7. Demerit goods - short answer
    8. Types of goods - self-test questions
    9. Government responses - short answer
    10. Common access resources - activities
    11. Overexploitation - questions
    12. Sustainability - report
    13. Plastic bags - carrying the weight of the environment?
    14. Running cars on biofuels can be unethical
    15. Cement - the hidden polluter?
    16. African roses - a sign of change
    17. Congestion charging
    18. Putting a price on carbon
    19. Power bills to soar in 'green reforms'
    20. Beyond Kyoto
    21. Economic growth cannot continue
    22. The rush to find Jade
    23. Chopstick tax
    24. Taxing light bulbs - that's a bright idea
    25. Trading pig excrement
    26. Congestion pricing
    27. Packaging tax
    28. Airport expansion plans
17. Section 1.4 Market failure - simulations and activities
18. 1.5 Theory of the firm
19. 1.5 Theory of the firm - notes (HL only)
20. Section 1.5 Theory of the firm - questions
21. Section 1.5 Theory of the firm - simulations and activities
22. Print View

Beyond Kyoto

Kyoto is the only international agreement with binding targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, but China and the United States, the world's biggest polluters, are not subject to its constraints. Under Kyoto, developed countries are allowed to establish domestic and internationally linked emissions trading schemes and purchase emissions reductions in developing countries and count them as their own. But on December 31 2012, Kyoto will expire without a successor agreement.

Since the 2007 Bali summit countries have been in a negotiating deadlock over different paths for a post-Kyoto agreement. Developing countries want a second Kyoto emissions reduction period because it puts the entire onus on developed countries.

Non-European developed countries want a new non-binding agreement that brings all the leading emitters into the tent. European countries want a mix of both. The failure to agree over what was being negotiated, let alone the detail, led to the eruption at the 2009 Copenhagen summit.

The absence of a global framework undermines the political and policy case for prioritising emissions cuts. Any knowledge of international relations - or human nature - should tell us that a non-binding treaty on climate change is about as effective as a peace vigil in a bombing raid. Staying with a non-binding treaty model means we are all unhappy and the planet is doomed. Good diplomacy is, as always, about taking what you can get.