Dickinson to Durban » Key COP17 Issues
Who Dun It?
by Claire Tighe To ask the question: “Who is responsible for climate change?” is to open a matrix of complicated answers that only best attempts can really suffice. If climate change is “The Issue of Our Time,” then answering this query might be the “Pending-Question-Upon-Which-Our-Future-Rests of Our Time.” The question “Who is responsible for climate change?” actually assumes two interlocking debates: 1.) Who, which in the frame of international negotiations implies “nation state,” is responsible for the actual global changes in the Earth’s climate and 2.) Who is responsible for fixing the problem? And the answer might sound familiar to members of the Facebook generation. It’s complicated. At the heart of this question lies the separation of ideologies between the global North and global South, who assume different points-of-view on the responsibility … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues
This won’t be easy, folks.
Chapter 5 of A Climate of Injustice by J. Timmons Roberts and Bradley Parks illustrates a set of approaches for allocating greenhouse gas targets. One of the four approaches stood out to me. The strategy in question was proposed by India, China and the Group of 77 and has been endorsed by France, Switzerland and the European Union; it is called the “Per-capita” strategy by Roberts and Parks. This approach is embodied in the emissions … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues
SHOW ME THE MONEY!!
As many know, developed countries such as the United States, have been the primary emitters of Greenhouse Gasses (GHG) and are often accused of causing global climate change. This may be so, but pointing fingers will only get us so far. What we need to look at going forward is how to mitigate the problem of global climate change and where the future emissions will come from. With more and more countries trying to make the move from “developing” to “developed”, we are bound to see a slew of industrial revolutions and thus a significant in GHG emission from countries that currently produce the smallest amounts. How do we prevent these increased emissions while still allowing these developing countries to prosper? Sustainable development! One problem, sustainable development is expensive, far more so … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues, Mosaic Action
Key Contention: North/South Divide
by Claire Tighe Rates of climate change and strategies for mitigation are not the only sources of contention amongst states in the climate change negotiations. One of the largest social justice issues regarding the global governance of climate change is the relationship between states of the” global North,” and the global “South”. What Bulkeley and Newell name in their book Governing Climate Change as the “North-South politics,” regarding the “poverty of climate governance” can be understood as tension between developed countries (“North”) and the developing or least-developed countries (“South”). Contention between these two global groups relies on the assumption that “while climate change has been largely caused by wealthy industrialized parts of the world, it is the least developed areas of the world that will suffer its worst consequences” (Bulkeley & Newell … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues
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