Dickinson to Durban » Climate Change » Easy as pie?

Easy as pie?

September 6th, 2011 | Add a Comment

“It is increasingly recognized that nation-states are increasingly limited in the degree to which they can directly effect emissions of (greenhouse gasses) and the ability of societies to adapt to climate change. While the language of international agreements often suggests that nation-states can act as containers for emissions of GHG– cutting up the global emissions pie into nation-sized pieces, setting targets and conducting emissions inventories– the GHG emitted within the boundaries of a nation-state are shaped by processes and actors operating across national boundaries…” by

-excerpt from “Governing Climate Change” by Peter Newell and Harriet Bulkeley

Global climate change is a problem which is…well, global. On Earth, there is no easy way to divvy up the atmospheric commons into neat slices of pie for each nation-state to monitor and control for GHG emissions. As we move forward in the attempted regulation of these global emissions, it is important that we recognize faults which are inevitable when dealing with the problem in a international regime approach.

Yes, we will have to the governance of GHG emissions on an international level. But this does NOT mean working solely on the nation-state level. In fact, doing so will inevitably make it seem as though every state has a single agenda or opinion on the matters of climate change regulation. Of course, we know that such a hot topic can hardly be agreed upon by the political representatives of each nation, let alone all of the NGO’s, scientists, and residents of that nation. People and organizations not in agreement with their nation’s political representation will be ignored when using an international regime approach. Additionally, although the governance of climate change attempts to give equal consideration to developing nations and small island states, this approach gives the most power to the largest and wealthiest nations.

It can be discouraging to think that there is no alternative to the international regime approach in managing the governance of climate change, but this idea is simply not true. Instead of following the top-down methods of this approach, lower level governments and organizations are choosing to regulate their GHG emissions on their own. A great example comes from our very own campus here at Dickinson College. Our school president, Bill Durden, signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). This commitment states that our campus (along with hundreds of others) will work towards being carbon-neutral. Other examples of this “bottom-up” action can be found among organizations around the country and throughout the world.