6.3.14 (HL)—Climate tragedy of the commons

Climate is a global commons: each actor can gain privately from emissions while costs spread across everyone, creating a free-riding incentive.

Trace private benefit → shared atmospheric damage → free-riding incentive → cooperation mechanism. The reverse problem also occurs: one nation may bear the cost of carbon capture or restoration while climate benefits spread to all nations.

A state can gain from cheap fossil energy while warming costs are dispersed; another may hesitate to fund carbon removal alone because others receive much of the benefit without paying.

Monitoring, finance, reciprocity and enforceable rules must address both incentives: benefiting without cutting and benefiting without contributing to restoration.

A global commons is not ownerless chaos; governance can create enforceable shared rules.