2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference

Elaine Hang

International Relations

Professor Shirk

2 December 2015

2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference

http://www.politico.com/gallery/2015/12/matt-wuerker-political-cartoons-december-2015-002151?slide=1

At the 21^st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), representatives of states are making strides in addressing concerns around climate change, even though there are conflicts between the states. As extreme weather phenomena (droughts, hurricanes, storms) have become more frequent in various geographical locations, states recognize climate change as a serious and urgent global problem. Although it has been recognized as a global problem for the last 20 years by developed nations, there is new hope for more contributions to handle the problem from big emitters of greenhouse gases in 2015.

In 2015, the perspective of these nations on climate change have changed. Developed nations (e.g. the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany) have realized that they have to take the initiative in decreasing cut down on emissions of greenhouse gases since they collectively emit about half of the world’s greenhouse gases. They also have been including in their decision-making process nations with emerging economies and developing nations, since those are the nations that tend to emit the most greenhouse gases. Even nations with emerging economies (e.g. China and India), who have historically chosen to resist the label of “developed nation” in order to avoid cutting carbon emissions, express more concerns about climate change. To their increased influence and better their image in the international community, those nations participate in global platforms where they seek to create a policy that balances their economic interests with the need to control carbon emissions. Not to mention, developing countries (e.g. Vietnam and a number of African countries) realize that the (delayed) consequences of climate change would threaten their socio-economic development more than the immediate effects their experiencing.

Despite this shift in mindset, there are still conflicts between states. The failure of the Kyoto Protocol brings up the questions about which countries should shoulder the responsibility for handling the climate change problem and how much responsibility they should take. Developed nations, who have more resources to dedicate to handling climate change, tend to argue with emerging economies about the emerging economies’ responsibility to reduce the vast amounts of greenhouse gases they emit. The emerging economies counter that they want to first achieve the economic stability that the developed nations, getting more time to obtain the resources to use in order to handle climate change. Meanwhile, developing nations are still insignificant in the decision-making process, despite the efforts of more influential nations to be more inclusive of them. The interests of these nations are undermined by the interests of flourishing nations.

The conflicts will not be solved during the COP21, but the possible agreement that comes out should be better than the Kyoto Protocol. Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the impending agreement is to be binding and reviewed by representatives from more than 150 nations who have an interest developing the plan and/or technology to handle the climate change problem. The COP21 agreement should have taken into consideration the economic inequality between nations, the role of big carbon emitters, and the proportional contributions of participating nations. The messages state representatives deliver range from optimistic promises to dire warnings, but they all contain the urgency to increase international cooperation in order to face climate change.