The aim of the CIEL project is to bring the following key messages to the forefront of the climate policy debate:

Climate Impacts are Diverse: Each person will experience climate change differently, but this wide range of climate outcomes is not well represented in economic models.

Emission Reductions Cannot Wait: Only the current generation can take action to avoid dangerous levels of climate change. In another 10 or 15 years, it will be too late to prevent the worst effects.

Some People Benefit from Climate Inaction: The most vulnerable among us – very few of whom will ever sit at a climate negotiation table – already suffer net losses today, but in the short run, the majority still has net gains – savings from not reducing emissions that are greater than their current climate damages.

Gains from Inaction are Short-Lived and Short-Sighted: If nothing is done to prevent climate change, in the next century almost everyone will suffer net losses. And future generations will wish that we had cared more about the well-being of our great-grandchildren.

Good Climate Policy Aims to Protect the Most Vulnerable: Making good decisions about climate policy today requires that policymakers look beyond the short-term gains for the current majority, and do more for the most vulnerable people around the world today and the vast majority of the global population tomorrow.

A "To Do" List for Climate Policymakers

Climate change presents an enormous challenge to policymakers. To make the best decisions, it is important that they keep the best interests of the net losers in mind. We offer this checklist for climate negotiators to help them think about what it takes to construct a climate policy that will protect the most vulnerable both now and in the future:

•  Is it fast enough? We have only until 2020 to begin large-scale reductions to greenhouse gas emissions.

•  Is it stringent? Small reductions won't do the job. By 2050, emissions must be halved. By 2100, net emissions must be next to nothing.

•  Is it feasible? The global community committed to "common but differentiated responsibilities" for a reason: Climate policy will fail if it does not give developing countries – and especially the very poorest countries - special rights to emit as their economies grow and special assistance in developing low-carbon technologies.

•  Is it fair? What is feasible and what is fair go hand in hand. Industrialized countries have created the climate problem; they need to both pay for their own emission reductions and support reductions in the developing world.

•  Is it politically viable? If a fast, strong, feasible and fair climate policy is not politically viable then it is the role of climate negotiators and other policy makers to make it viable. Take a stand. Form a coalition. Make it happen. We're all counting on you.