International Climate Policy Post-Copenhagen

International Climate Policy Post-Copenhagen PDF Author: European Commission
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 12

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Book Description

International Climate Policy Post-Copenhagen

International Climate Policy Post-Copenhagen PDF Author: European Commission
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 12

Get Book Here

Book Description


Climate Change, Fragmentation, and the Challenges of Global Environmental Law

Climate Change, Fragmentation, and the Challenges of Global Environmental Law PDF Author: William Boyd
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The 2009 United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen has been widely viewed as a failure - a referendum in the eyes of many on the top-down, comprehensive approach to climate governance embodied in the Kyoto Protocol and carried forward in efforts to negotiate a successor regime. Despite a modest agreement on future work toward a new agreement, the most recent climate meeting in Cancún, Mexico reinforces this view, underscoring the conclusion that Copenhagen represents an important inflection point for international climate policy. Although much of the post-Copenhagen commentary has correctly identified various problems, even fatal flaws, with the process, very little has been particularly helpful in marking out a constructive way forward. This Article takes some steps in that direction, offering a partial re-conceptualization of the nature and possibilities of global climate governance in the post-Copenhagen era. It starts from the premise that any realistic approach to climate governance must begin with the facts of globalization, legal pluralism, and fragmentation rather than the view that climate change is a particular kind of global problem that can only be solved through a top-down, supra-national regime aimed at managing the Earth system. As argued here, this “Earth systems governance” approach to the climate change problem, which derives from radically enhanced scientific and technical ways of understanding global environmental change and a particularly narrow view of collective action, has become deeply embedded as a basic objective of climate policy. The resulting logic of global environmental managerialism, however, is very much at odds with the plural, fragmented nature of the international legal and political order - a fact well illustrated by the limited results coming out of the recent climate meetings in Copenhagen and Cancún as well as the near total disarray that marks the current climate policy discourse in the United States and other major emitting countries. In contrast, an alternative, post-Copenhagen approach to the problem of climate governance that starts with the facts of globalization and its implications for law and legal order trains attention to new and different, and much messier, ways of coordinating efforts across jurisdictions and building enabling environments for collective action. This Article maps several key elements of post-Copenhagen climate governance through an analysis of efforts to bring reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (“REDD”) into climate policy. Although deforestation, nearly all of which occurs in the tropics, accounts for some fifteen percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, it has only recently become a major focus of climate policy, emerging as one of the few areas of consensus in the international climate negotiations. As a new paradigm for land use that implicates multiple legal and institutional orders at multiple levels, the REDD experience illustrates both the opportunities and the challenges of constructing climate governance through the complex articulation between distinctively global projects and particular national and sub-national institutions. Approaching climate governance from this perspective provides a basis for some more general claims regarding the possibilities of global environmental law in the context of a plural, fragmented international legal order.

Climate Policy after Copenhagen

Climate Policy after Copenhagen PDF Author: Karsten Neuhoff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781107008939
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
At the UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen, 117 heads of state concluded that low-carbon development is necessary in order to combat climate change. However, they could not agree on emission targets. At least one of the reasons why they could not agree is that low-carbon development is challenging because it requires the implementation of a portfolio of policies and programs. This book examines one the policies at the heart of attempts to create a low-carbon future: the European Emission Trading Scheme. It explores problems surrounding the implementation of such schemes, including the role of vested interests, the impact of subtle design details, and opportunities to attract long-term investments. It also shows how international climate cooperation can be designed to support the domestic implementation of policies for low-carbon development. This timely analysis of carbon pricing contains important lessons for all those concerned with the development of post-Copenhagen climate policy.

The International Climate Regime and Its Driving-Forces: Obstacles and Chances on the Way to a Global Response to the Problem of Climate Change

The International Climate Regime and Its Driving-Forces: Obstacles and Chances on the Way to a Global Response to the Problem of Climate Change PDF Author: Ben Witthaus
Publisher: Diplomica Verlag
ISBN: 3842873832
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
The greenhouse effect is a vital process which is responsible for the heat on the earth?s surface. By consuming fossil fuels, clearing forests etc. humans aggravate this natural process. As additionally trapped heat exceeds the earth?s intake capacity this consequently leads to global warming. The current concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is already 30% higher compared to pre-industrial levels and unmanaged this development is likely to result in an increase of up to 6.4ø C towards the end of the century. Especially the poorest regions of the world are facing a double inequity as they a) will be hit earliest and hardest by the adverse impacts of climate change, and b) are least responsible for the stock of current concentrations in the atmosphere. Seeing this the application of the precautionary principle telling us ?to better be safe than sorry? appears to be imperative and makes traditional cost-benefit analysis become obsolete. Thus combating global warming has become one of the most important issues facing the world in the 21st century. The international climate regime is the main platform to further cooperation between nations and to tackle this problem. Since the first world climate conference in 1979 the international community of states pursues the goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2009, the 15th COP of the UNFCCC aimed at achieving the final breakthrough with regard to framing new long-term mitigation commitments. However, the regime theory tells us that states behave as rational egoists and solely follow selfishly defined interests to maximize own profits. So it not only has to be assumed that just states with a favourable benefit-cost ratio will take the role of a ?pusher? in international climate negotiations but also that powerful states are more likely to reach a favourable outcome. Indeed the highly ineffective Kyoto Protocol, which amongst others had to deal with the exit of the United States, the creation of ?hot air? reductions and an overall lack of compliance incentives, has already shown the difficulties of creating an effective climate regime. In Copenhagen it became obvious that influential actors still do not seem to have an interest to significantly change their energy consumption patterns in order to reduce emissions. The majority of developing countries, politically prioritize the protection of their economic development which heavily depends on the use of cheap energy from fossil fuels. Especially China by no means intends to cut its impressive GDP growth figures to please international crowds. Meanwhile the hands of the US President on the international stage were once again tied by domestic restrictions. However, although it seemed that the long prevailing differences of interests between industrial and developing countries are more than ever insuperable, there is hope. A ?global race? towards renewable energy and related jobs has already started. Nations and international corporations are positioning themselves to take advantage of the inevitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. This could be the starting point for a sustainable bottom-up policy architecture on the international level replacing the current top-down approach.

Climate Policy after Copenhagen

Climate Policy after Copenhagen PDF Author: Karsten Neuhoff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139497669
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
At the UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen, 117 heads of state concluded that low-carbon development is necessary in order to combat climate change. However, they also understood that transition to a low-carbon economy requires the implementation of a portfolio of policies and programs - a challenging endeavour for any nation. This book addresses the need for information about factors impacting climate policy implementation, using as a case study one effort that is at the heart of attempts to create a low-carbon future: the European Emission Trading Scheme. It explores problems surrounding the implementation of the ETS, including the role of vested interests, the impact of design details and opportunities to attract long-term investments. It also shows how international climate cooperation can be designed to support the domestic implementation of low-carbon policies. This timely analysis of carbon pricing contains important lessons for all those concerned with the development of post-Copenhagen climate policy.

Beyond Copenhagen

Beyond Copenhagen PDF Author: Great Britain. Department of Energy and Climate Change
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780101785020
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
This plan sets out the Government's belief that the low carbon transformation can be a major driver of economic growth and job creation - in the UK, in Europe and globally. In it the UK Government makes clear that: it wants to build on the strengths of the Kyoto Protocol, and is open to extending that agreement as a way of getting the legal deal needed; it is in favour of strengthening the UN decision making process that was so frustrating at Copenhagen; it is pushing for the EU to increase its plans to cut emissions in line with comparable moves elsewhere, supporting the European Commission's work to identify the practical steps that would be required to implement a 30 per cent reduction target. The Action Plan builds on the Copenhagen Accord, in which countries have put forward actions that, if delivered in full, would see global emissions peak before 2020.

From Copenhagen to Cancun - Driving-Forces in the International Climate Regime

From Copenhagen to Cancun - Driving-Forces in the International Climate Regime PDF Author: Ben Witthaus
Publisher: diplom.de
ISBN: 3842823215
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: For more than two decades, scientific and political communities have debated whether and how to act on climate change. This discussion moved on. Today science is very clear about the magnitude of the risks imposed by unmanaged climate change: What we are doing is redifining where people could live and if we do that as a world than hundreds of million of people will move. Probably billions will move. We are talking about gambling the planet, we are talking about a radical change of the way in which human beings could live and where they could live and, indeed, how many of them. With regard to these risks the application of the precautionary principle telling us to better be safe than sorry appears to be imperative and makes traditional cost-benefit analysis become obsolete. Thus combating global warming has become one of the most important issues facing the world in the 21. century. As nobody would be immune from the transformation the planet faces, avoiding this gamble should, in theory, be in the interest of all nations. Unfortunately, a common response in the scale necessary is hard to organize. While the industrialized countries fear the costs of the transformation from a high-carbon to a low-carbon economy, it is the poorest people who are facing a double unequity as they 1. will be hit earliest and hardest by the adverse impacts of climate change, and 2. are least responsible for the stock of current concentrations in the atmosphere. This inequity consequently leads to a great sense of injustice in developing countries being asked cut emission, while knowing, that the developed world got rich on high-carbon growth. Without any doubt the outcome of this is a historical responsibility of industrialized countries to take over leadership in reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. However, bearing in mind that by 2050, approximately eight out of nine billion people in the world will be living in developing nations, it is impossible to get down to emission levels needed without at the same time covering the developing world as well. Against this background international climate protection is a sociopolitical, economical, and ethical challenge, concerning all nations, which have to understand that they are a community based on the principle of mutual solidarity. The international climate regime is regarded as the main platform to further cooperation between nations in order to succesfully combat global [...]

International Climate Change

International Climate Change PDF Author: Jane A. Leggett
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1437943322
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 23

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Book Description
Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) gather for their 16th annual meeting in 2010. Several formal and informal negotiating sessions in 2010, intended to resuscitate the global negotiations to address climate change beyond the year 2012, have followed the 2009 meeting in Copenhagen, with which many countries and observers were disappointed. Under the UNFCCC, 194 gov'ts, including the U.S., have taken on obligations to address climate change through enhanced scientific and technological cooperation, assessment of sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals, and policies and measures to mitigate GHG and to promote adaptation to climate changes. This is a print on demand report.

Climate Change Negotiations

Climate Change Negotiations PDF Author: Gunnar Sjöstedt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136252290
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
As the Kyoto Protocol limps along without the participation of the US and Australia, on-going climate negotiations are plagued by competing national and business interests that are creating stumbling blocks to success. Climate Change Negotiations: A Guide to Resolving Disputes and Facilitating Multilateral Cooperation asks how these persistent obstacles can be down-scaled, approaching them from five professional perspectives: a top policy-maker, a senior negotiator, a leading scientist, an international lawyer, and a sociologist who is observing the process. The authors identify the major problems, including great power strategies (the EU, the US and Russia), leadership, the role of NGOs, capacity and knowledge-building, airline industry emissions, insurance and risk transfer instruments, problems of cost benefit analysis, the IPCC in the post-Kyoto situation, and verification and institutional design. A new key concept is introduced: strategic facilitation. 'Strategic facilitation' has a long time frame, a forward-looking orientation and aims to support the overall negotiation process rather than individual actors. This book is aimed at academics, university students and practitioners who are directly or indirectly engaged in the international climate negotiation as policy makers, diplomats or experts.

Climate Action in a Globalizing World

Climate Action in a Globalizing World PDF Author: Carl Cassegard
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317212541
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
The existence and urgency of global climate change is a matter of scientific consensus. Yet the global politics of climate change have been anything but consensual. In this context, a wave of global climate activism has emerged in the last decade in response to the perceived failure of the political negotiations. This book provides a unique comparative study of environmental movements in USA, Japan, Denmark and Sweden, analyzing their interaction with the international climate institutions of the United Nations, with national governments, and with currents in the global climate movement. It documents how and why the movement evolved between the Copenhagen Summit of 2009 and the Paris Summit of 2015, altering its strategies and tactics while attracting new actors to the issue area. Further, it demonstrates how the development of global environmental networks has increased contact between environmental movements in the Global North and those from the Global South, resulting in the establishment of ‘climate justice’ as a political cause and unifying frame for global climate activism.