Game Theory and Climate Change
Game theory is a highly appropriate lens through which one can analyze the issue of climate change. The planet is a common resource which no single individual owns and that everybody has access to. In the ideal case, everyone would take the appropriate measures (in other words, take on the corresponding costs) to manage one’s personal carbon footprint so that the “commons” could be preserved. If this is done correctly, the common resources will be sustained and replenished, providing wealth for many. However, if too much is taken from the common resources and not enough effort is spent to sustain this pool, the entire game can collapse.
In order to avoid this situation called the “tragedy of the commons” which was first popularised by Garret Harding, there must be rules which reward cooperation and punish free loading (not paying the environmental costs for your profit-motivated action.) One model is the boot-strapping process, which is basically founded on concepts of reciprocity and mutual understanding of the costs/benefits.
With this at the foundation for international climate policy, it could potentially establish a new diplomatic atmosphere more conducive to planetary interests and less so with nationalistic ones.
However, a key factor as to why it is so difficult to get these policies going is because of one key feature about this climate change game. Ideally, boot-strapping sets in when those who reap the most benefits of free-loading will also experience the most harm once the commons collapse. However, we know that climate change will have more of an effect on already poorer regions, thereby lessening the incentive for those who are actually leeching into the common pool of resources to stop.
LINK: https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2016/apr/13/can-game-theory-help-solve-the-problem-of-climate-change