Abstrakt
Public goods were recognized by Adam Smith and Paul Samuelson as an important part of the societal fabric. Their provision is one of the fundamental prerequisites for the progress of human civilization.
With the growing complexity of societies over the course of history they are more and more important, and, in particular, they apply to the current situation where they are needed more than ever before. According to Eugene Stoermer and Paul Crutzen, we are now living in the Anthropocene era that started around 1800 and which is synonymous with our industrial and increasingly globalized society.
During this period we have witnessed enormous growth in the human population and its economy, which have increased by more than two orders of magnitude. Global public goods have acquired several novel qualities and a unique significance over this period of time.
One of the most fundamental is an environmentally safe operating space for humanity, which according to Johan Rockstrom is delineated by biophysical planetary boundaries. Changing climate is among the most important.
The protection of global climate could thus be seen as one of the crucial public goods. The important question is how to adequately provide for this protection given the contemporary model of global environmental governance with vastly inadequate international and intergovernmental institutions.
Various aspects of this question are discussed.