Providing global public goods

1. Providing global public goods Finance, Compliance, Governance

2. No ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution • Not all public goods are the same • Different costs • Different benefits • Different architectures for provision • States do not have the same preferences • Because they perceive the goods differently • Because they are not equally developped • Because they have different governments

3. Different methods of supply • Single best effort • Can be supplied unilaterally • Examples: vaccine, landing on the moon,... • Weakest link • Depends on the states that contribute the least • Examples: smallpox eradication, fight against terrorism,... • Aggregate efforts • Depends on the combined efforts of everyone • Examples: climate change

4. Who pays? • Taxes or voluntary contributions? • Unilateral or multilateral funding? • Issues of justice and equity: • Capacity to pay • Grandfathering • Retributive justice • Relationship between the contributors and the beneficiaries?

5. Sovereignty as an obstactle for the provision of global public goods? • Since the Peace of Westphalia, international relations are based on the principle of sovereignty. • Is this institutional framework still adequate given the multiplicity and diversity of actors? • Issues of trust • Contested institutions

6. Sustainable development as a paradigm for cooperation • Collaborative decision process • Other actors than states are associated • Definition of collective preferences • Not just an aggregate of individual preferences • Justice and equity • As conditions of sustainable agreements • Burden and responsibility sharing • Different conceptions of equity

7. Compliance • Sanctions • Do sanctions work? • What kind of sanctions? • Incentives • Balance between a stronger provision and a larger participation

8. Ultimately • Do global public goods, as a concept, advance the provision of these goods? • How is the concept useful in the global governance debate? • Can it help policy-makers view the goods differently?