When negotiations over the post-Kyoto climate change regime resume in December, the issue of ‘common yet differentiated responsibilities’ is certain to generate some intense debate. Beyond the conflicts caused by the deferring interpretations of the actual wording – repeated so often that it has become the mantra of international climate change discourse – ‘common yet differentiated responsibilities’ is a problematic approach to negotiations on several other levels.
In Bringing the Copenhagen Global Climate Change Negotiations to Conclusion, John Whalley and Sean Walsh declare that prospects for a satisfactory outcome from COP 15 are daunting. I might add intimidating, overwhelming, and frightening, but that’s just me. We’re talking about nearly 200 countries, representing 6.7 billion people, coming together to discuss, in two weeks, […]
Despite never formally being a party of the UNFCCC proceedings, the United States has tremendous influence on the post-Kyoto negotiations leading up to COP-15 in Copenhagen this December. Many countries are looking to the U.S. to see if the change in administration can foster a greater involvement with new climate change mitigation after 2012 (the […]
Continue reading about Wanted: Greater Participation From China/U.S.
China and India have aligned on similar interests to take on Russia and the EU in a game of policy Tug O’ War. China and India are pulling for a per $GDP CO2 emissions reduction policy while Russia and the EU are pulling for an absolute quantity cap in CO2 emissions. But why this opposition? What […]
Continue reading about Policy Tug o’ war: EU and Russia vs. China and India. Who will win?
Reaching a compromise at the Kyoto 2 Conference in Copenhagen on an agreement that will effectively address climate change in a manner that is sustainable, relatively equitable, and financially feasible will be extremely challenging. In the Bringing Copenhagen Climate Change to a Conclusion report, the authors elaborated on many potential problems for the upcoming conference […]
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