Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "COP16"
Legally Binding Agreement at COP17?
(If you’re new to this blog or the discussion on legally binding agreements at international climate negotiations, please see this blog in order to gain some background knowledge). After the two most recent UNFCCC Conferences of the Parties, COP 15 and COP16, some least-developed countries are still holding out for a legally binding commitment at COP17. However, due to political concerns, the concept of a legally bound commitment is viewed differently by each country involved in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Environmental Politics, Key COP17 Issues
Baby Steps?
by Claire Tighe ’13 According to the UNFCCC website, the Cancún Agreement, resolved in Mexico at COP16 in 2010, accomplished quite a bit for the continued international efforts at mitigating and adapting to climate change. However, negotiations are by no means complete, and delegates at COP17 will have to continue these “baby” steps in the climate agreements. But are “baby steps” enough to solve climate change? As the online science resource Climate Action Tracker notes, “Emissions are at a historic high while actions are not.” The Cancún Agreements did manage to form “the largest collective effort the world has ever seen to reduce emisssions,” as well as “the most comprehensive package ever agree by Governments to help developing nations deal with climate change,” and a “timely schedule […] for keeping the global … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues, Summer Reading Responses
Is something better than nothing?
The first major paper I completed at Dickinson College was one entitled, “A New Atmosphere for International Relations: Working together to solve a global crisis”. It was an essay written for a 100 level international relations course in which I discussed the COP15 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. In my response, I held a very pessimistic view that there would not be a significant change in policy as a result of the conference. While what I predicted turned out to be fairly accurate, I can almost promise that my opinion did not have a very strong foundation in background information. I was not even an environmental studies major at the time and to be honest, I’m pretty sure that for a while I thought the acronym COP was in reference to the fact that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
We Will Figure it out Next Year
The fact that the countries of the world come together every year for the Conference of the Parties (COP) to discuss and debate climate change is progress by itself. It is impressive that every year almost every nation sends delegate to this conference to confront together one of the largest challenges of our time in a peaceful manner. However, discussion is only the first step, and it seems that the global community is having a difficult time moving on to step two which is to take action. This struggle is reflected in most of the agreements that the COP comes to by the end of each conference. They restate what they agree on: climate change is occurring, and every nation needs to take some degree of responsibility for it. Then, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
Recent Comments