Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "Governing Climate Change"
The Key To International Negotiations?
by Claire Tighe ’13 In order to maintain a livable atmosphere for life on Earth, big polluters such as the United States, need to significantly reduce their greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions. Without either a carbon cap-and-trade system or a carbon tax imposed by the federal government, the future of climate change looks bleak, particularly in relation to the pending international climate change agreements (For a great introduction of the dynamics and concerns of the cap-and-trade system, see Holme Hummel’s slideshow). As economist Nat Keohane presents in his video about cap-and-trade here, a concrete, comprehensive domestic emissions restriction will encourage other international states to create their own policies, or even sign onto a post-Kyoto agreement. If competing countries, such as China, see that the United States has made a commitment to cut carbon, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues, Summer Reading Responses
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
From Friend to Foe
By: Christine Burns ’14 On September 15th the Mosaic students and a first-year seminar participated in a climate change negotiations simulation. Each student was given a country to represent and we were placed into three categories: developing (EU, US), rapidly developing (China, India), and other developing (Sub-Sahara Africa, Bangladesh) countries. We then attempted to negotiate a climate change agreement between the three groups. I now have an understanding for how difficult climate negotiations truly are. I always get annoyed when global negotiations do not produce results, but after heatedly arguing with my friends and peers for three hours, I have a much better appreciation for how complex international negotiations are. Countries come from very different backgrounds making it difficult for them to see eye-to-eye and therefore come to a consensus that incorporates … Read entire article »
Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues, Mosaic Action
Cramped and Crowded
My favorite yoga teacher always jokes that the only way to get world leaders to agree on anything is to force them into doing hot yoga together. With yoga mats arranged only inches apart in a small studio heated to 98 degrees Fahrenheit, each state head would have to peacefully “negotiate” their space, attempting to stay fully conscious of their breathing and the future of the world as each sweats on the other. I could not help by remember this joke during our class simulation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change last week. Each group comprised of ten or so countries divided into negotiating blocs denoted by their economic status: “developed,” “developing,” and “other developing” (i.e. “least developed”). We represented a specific state, simultaneously functioning under a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues, Mosaic Action, Summer Reading Responses
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