Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "international cooperation"
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
And so it begins
Thursday, September 15 marked our first taste of the struggles of global climate deliberations. Our Global Climate Change Africa Mosaic class along with a first year seminar class attempted to navigate a simplified version of an international climate change negotiations. It was difficult. The painful balance of economic and environmental responsibility at times was almost too much to bear. Staying in character in a room full of first-years and close friends is exceedingly difficult, especially when almost everyone is environmentally aware. Awkwardness, coupled with a significant lack of information, left many negotiators arguing heatedly over negligible points. I have never realized how little I knew about the value of a dollar before this session. Propositions for “monetary donations” to a “global fund” jumped from a few hundred billion dollars to one … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
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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