UNFCCC Research Papers - Academia.edu

In 2015, the Paris Climate Change Agreement was adopted, and in the ensuing years, countries, along with researchers, civil society and industry have been debating how to implement concrete action to address the climate challenge. The... more

In 2015, the Paris Climate Change Agreement was adopted, and in the ensuing years, countries, along with researchers, civil society and industry have been debating how to implement concrete action to address the climate challenge. The link between climate change and human security was first recognised in the early 2000s. This paper examines how climate change has exacerbated uncertainty and instability in vulnerable populations in different regions. It achieves this by looking at diverse national and local experiences through multiple policy lenses, namely, the proliferation of extreme weather events, coastal erosion and sea level rise, internal displacement, cross border migration, and climate change as a threat multiplier. It looks at specific cases in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands and the Levant to understand how human (in)security is being affected by climate change. It also addresses the future of global climate policy by assessing the current state of climate policies in light of the Paris Agreement. Global action on climate change is urgent. While many developed countries like to avoid notions of climate justice and differentiated responsibilities, the reality for the most vulnerable countries is that supranational policy is crucial if they are to tackle the climate challenge at home. This paper emphasises the importance of having meaningful and focused national climate adaptation and mitigation policies in place in order to address both the avoidable and unavoidable impacts of climate change on the economy, the culture and ultimately the security of a country.

This study finds that as climate change plays an increasingly important role in discussions of security, comprehensive strategies are needed to respond to climate-induced security threats and geopolitical (in)stability both nationally and around the world. The Paris Agreement was a good first step in driving countries to commit to curbing emissions and drafting climate adaptation action plans. We now need the global climate regime – including countries, industry, and researchers – to step up to the plate and implement effective policies if we are to limit the serious impacts of climate change. The findings in this paper aims to contribute
to the global debate around security and climate change.

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- by Simon Chin-Yee
- •
- 13
  African Studies, Coastal Management, Climate Change, Conflict

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- by Megan Bowman
- •
- 17
  Business, Technology, International Law, International organizations

This paper examines procedures for public scrutiny and stakeholder participation in relation to private governance of the flexibility mechanisms established under the Kyoto Protocol. It also studies the role of these procedures in... more

Purpose This paper interrogates forms of activist organisation at the UNFCCC COP16 in Cancún and reveals their attempts to create alternatives to a seemingly ‘depoliticised’ response to climate change. The article argues that existing... more

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- by Leon Sealey-Huggins
- •
- 9
  Sociology, Social Movements, Climate Change, Ethnography

The issue of US ratification of international environmental treaties is a recurring obstacle for environmental multilateralism, including the climate regime. Despite the perceived importance of the role of the US to the success of any... more

To save the apes we must save their habitat - the tropical rainforests and woodlands of Africa and South-east Asia, two of the planet's 'green lungs'. Apes are keystone species in their ecosystems, which in turn are key to global efforts... more

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- by Ian Redmond
- •
- 11
  Climate Change, Conservation, Wildlife Biology, Tropical Ecology

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- by David Rojas and +1
  Noor Johnson
- •
- 5
  Agricultural landscapes, Carbon Market, Anthropocene studies, Anthropocene

Citation: Johnson, N. and D. Rojas (2016). "Contrasting values of forests and ice at United Nations climate change conferences." In Palaces of Hope: The Anthropology of the United Nations. Ronald Niezen and Maria Sapignoli, eds. Pp. 219 –... more

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- by Noor Johnson
- •
- 4
  Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Carbon Capture and Storage, UNFCCC

The adoption of the Cancun Agreements constitutes a remarkable shift in the promotion of state compliance within the climate change regime. Whereas the Kyoto Protocol involved robust enforcement mechanisms, the new Measurement, Reporting... more

This is the submitted and graded final assignment of course “Feminist Genealogies and Social Movements” of the Master's in Gender Studies: Intersectionality and Change at Linköping University. In this assignment, I discuss how my... more

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- by Maria Kousoula
- •
- 12
  Social Movements, Gender Studies, Organizational Change, Genealogy

This contribution examines the role European Union (EU) leadership played in the outcome of the 2015 COP21 climate summit in Paris. The EU’s attempts to realise its bid for climate change leadership are scrutinised by investigating to... more

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- by Charles F Parker and +1
  Christer Karlsson
- •
- 9
  European Studies, Climate Change, Leadership, European Foreign Policy

2018. MIT Press, Cambridge Mass. Ed. Urs Luterbacher and Detlef F. Sprinz

溫室氣體減量議題，不僅與全球氣候變遷有關，同時與國際正義及環境永續發展息息相關。在聯合國所屬「聯合國氣候變化綱要公約」組織... more

Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships can overcome many of the problems which exist with the transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies (ESTs) from developed to developing countries, but as yet they have not been explored in detail in the... more

Technology can be of both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ in nature. While both kinds of technologies are applicable for climate change mitigation technologies, the latter kind is more appropriate for climate change adaptation. This is because unlike... more

This South African case study on mitigation actions forms one of a series of five case studies undertaken as part of the MAPS programme - the four other case studies are being undertaken in Peru, Chile, Brazil and Colombia. These five... more

The contribution analyses the Paris Agreement, which was adopted at the 21st Conference of the Parties (‘COP21’) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (‘UNFCCC’). The focus is on the place of the Paris Agreement in... more

Climate policies and ethics have been crucial aspects of distributive justice in climate change. Atmosphere, being the global common, requires a global agreement on mitigation and adaptation to climate change. But such agreements face... more

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- by Utkarsh Singh
- •
- 9
  Climate Change, Climate change policy, Climate ethics, Global Warming

This article provides a history and article-by-article commentary on the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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- by Dan Bodansky
- •
- 3
  Climate Change, Climate change policy, UNFCCC

The climate change negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have been ongoing since the first conference of the parties in 1995. Twenty years on there has been little progress reducing greenhouse gas... more

The climate change negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have been ongoing since the first conference of the parties in 1995. Twenty years on there has been little progress reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the climate regime is in a state of flux and the role of developing countries therein is changing. During this period the majority of the work on climate change from within the International Relations discipline has been framed in a neoliberal institutionalist or neorealist frame. Studies in the climate policy canon have been predominantly similarly located, albeit implicitly. In its focus on India this dissertation provides a bridge between the climate policy literature and the theoretically framed climate change policy studies in the International Relations literature.

This dissertation employs the Critical International Relations theoretical framework of Robert Cox. His theory outlines a ‘framework for action’ that enables and constrains how states act, and how they conceive of their agency. This framework, or historical structure, is created by a particular configuration of the forces exerted by ideas, institutions, and material capabilities, which when aligned, create a hegemonic historical structure. In the climate negotiations, India has been a vocal proponent of the ideas of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities from the earliest days of the Convention. India’s changing material circumstances and geo-political status in the past decade raised the question of its role in the regime in relation to its long-supported ideas.

This is a qualitative case study using documentary evidence triangulated with interview data from a range of key Indian stakeholders. I found that in the transition from abstract principle to operational precept the intersubjective idea of addressing climate change did not transmute into an intersubjectively shared idea of differentiation. Furthermore, once the idea of differentiation was to be operationalised in the negotiations, its primacy, indeed its very “intersubjectiveness”, was contested by the idea of symmetry of obligations and responsibility. The ongoing regime flux is the outcome of this contestation between ideas held collectively by groups, as no stabilising hegemonic historical structure has been created. India’s emergence has been insufficient to reinstate differentiation as an intersubjectively held idea and it is thus unable to secure a hegemonic historical structure in favour of differentiation.

Climate change poses an existential threat to Small Island Developing States (SIDS). They have played a leading role in raising awareness of climate change on the international stage and advocating for strong climate action, notably... more

This Article examines the role of international law in the innovation and transfer of green technologies in the context of South-South cooperation. It argues that collaboration merely between developed and developing countries is... more

Use of climate-related technologies such as solar PV is beneficial to climate change mitigation, and also to, poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Based on this, this study draws from the Strategic Niche Management framework,... more

This dissertation makes the moral case for equitably transitioning away from fossil fuels in line with the Paris Climate Agreement’s more stringent target of keeping global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. It argues that we... more

At present there are 18 emission trading schemes (ETS) operating in the world. At the COP21 in Paris a clear path for climate and energy policies has been outlined over the coming decades: states have committed themselves to reach zero... more

Buku ini menceritakan tentang kiprah Dewan Nasional Perubahan Iklim (DNPI) selama lima tahun 2008-2013. Membentangkan sejarah berdirinya DNPI hingga hasil-hasil yang telah dicapainya selama lima tahun. This book compiled the Indonesia... more

100 Temel Maddede Sürdürülebilirlik Rehberi, iklim müzakerelerinden ‘Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Hedefleri’ne, yenilenebilir enerjiden sürdürülebilirlik kavramının yolculuğuna, biyomimikriden endüstriyel simbiyoza ve döngüsel ekonomiye kadar... more

La Tercera Comunicación Nacional (TCN) de Panamá sobre Cambio Climático se presenta como parte de los compro¬misos adquiridos por el país ante la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC). Panamá presenta... more

La Tercera Comunicación Nacional (TCN) de Panamá sobre Cambio Climático se presenta como parte de los compro¬misos adquiridos por el país ante la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC).
Panamá presenta a su vez, el Primer Informe Bienal de Actualización (PIBA) ante la CMNUCC, en un esfuerzo conjunto con la TCN y en donde ambos documentos presentan medidas de mitigación actualizadas. Una de las diferencias entre dichos documentos recae principal¬mente en el año de referencia para la elaboración de los Inventarios Nacionales de Gases de Efecto invernadero (INGEI), ya que dentro de la TCN los años seleccionados fueron 2005 y 2010 mientras que para el PIBA fue el 2013.
La experiencia adquirida por Panamá para hacer frente al cambio climático, propicia un verdadero manejo compar¬tido, incluyente y abarcador entre todos los actores involucrados, así como facilita las acciones de mitigación y adaptación que a su vez permiten un mayor alcance en el logro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS).
En ese sentido, el grupo de trabajo coordinado por la Dirección de Cambio Climático (DCC) del Ministerio de Ambiente (MIAMBIENTE) es un reflejo del fortalecimiento tanto de la capacidad técnica como institucional para el cumplimiento de las obligaciones nacionales ante la Convención de Cambio Climático.
La TCN, expone las evidencias sobre la vulnerabilidad frente a los efectos del cambio climático, y su relación con los procesos de cambio de uso, uso de la tierra y la silvicultura (UTCUTS) que son uno de los principales responsables de las emisiones de Gases de Efecto inverna¬dero (GEI). También destaca la evaluación de la transición de la República de Panamá hacia una Economía Baja en Emisiones de Carbono.
La Tercera Comunicación Nacional (TCN) de Panamá sobre Cambio Climático se presenta como parte de los compro¬misos adquiridos por el país ante la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC).
Panamá presenta a su vez, el Primer Informe Bienal de Actualización (PIBA) ante la CMNUCC, en un esfuerzo conjunto con la TCN y en donde ambos documentos presentan medidas de mitigación actualizadas. Una de las diferencias entre dichos documentos recae principal¬mente en el año de referencia para la elaboración de los Inventarios Nacionales de Gases de Efecto invernadero (INGEI), ya que dentro de la TCN los años seleccionados fueron 2005 y 2010 mientras que para el PIBA fue el 2013.
La experiencia adquirida por Panamá para hacer frente al cambio climático, propicia un verdadero manejo compar¬tido, incluyente y abarcador entre todos los actores involucrados, así como facilita las acciones de mitigación y adaptación que a su vez permiten un mayor alcance en el logro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS).
En ese sentido,el grupo de trabajo coordinado por la Dirección de Cambio Climático (DCC) del Ministerio de Ambiente (MIAMBIENTE) es un reflejo del fortalecimiento tanto de la capacidad técnica como institucional para el cumplimiento de las obligaciones nacionales ante la Convención de Cambio Climático.
La TCN, expone las evidencias sobre la vulnerabilidad frente a los efectos del cambio climático, y su relación con los procesos de cambio de uso, uso de la tierra y la silvicultura (UTCUTS) que son uno de los principales responsables de las emisiones de Gases de Efecto inverna¬dero (GEI). También destaca la evaluación de la transición de la República de Panamá hacia una Economía Baja en Emisiones de Carbono.

En la actualidad, Panamá es un país multicultural que durante la época colonial, su posición y características geográficas contribuyeron a potenciar su función como lugar de transmercancías hacia la metrópoli. Posteriormente, la construcción del ferrocarril transístmico y del Canal de Panamá, permitieron la convergencia de diferentes culturas que a través de los años y de la convi¬vencia pacífica, han convertido el país en un “entramado de razas” donde se practican los principales credos, filosofías y religiones del mundo.

Asimismo, se aborda la dimensión de desarrollo humano, donde muestra que a nivel de país se han logrado avances significativos en las principales dimensiones de salud humana y esperanza de vida, educación y el ingreso per cápita. También, en cuanto a la dimensión salud y espe¬ranza de vida se tiene el mayor avance, dado los esfuerzos en las últimas décadas por reducir la tasa de mortalidad de la población.

Panamá es un país con un alto crecimiento económico y avanza en su lucha ante la desigualdad en los niveles de ingresos de las distintas regiones del país, así como en aumentar el nivel de prestación de servicios básicos y empleos de mayor calidad. El país se destaca por tener uno de los ingresos per cápita más altos de América Latina, así como una amplia gama de servicios de transporte y logística que permiten enfrentar los retos globales actuales.

En la actualidad, Panamá es un país multicultural que durante la época colonial, su posición y características geográficas contribuyeron a potenciar su función como lugar de transmercancías hacia la metrópoli. Posteriormente, la construcción del ferrocarril transístmico y del Canal de Panamá, permitieron la convergencia de diferentes culturas que a través de los años y de la convivencia pacífica, han convertido el país en un “entramado de razas” donde se practican los principales credos, filosofías y religiones del mundo.

Asimismo, se aborda la dimensión de desarrollo humano, donde muestra que a nivel de país se han logrado avances significativos en las principales dimensiones de salud humana y esperanza de vida, educación y el ingreso per cápita. También, en cuanto a la dimensión salud y esperanza de vida se tiene el mayor avance, dado los esfuerzos en las últimas décadas por reducir la tasa de mortalidad de la población.
Panamá es un país con un alto crecimiento económico y avanza en su lucha ante la desigualdad en los niveles de ingresos de las distintas regiones del país, así como en aumentar el nivel de prestación de servicios básicos y empleos de mayor calidad. El país se destaca por tener uno de los ingresos per cápita más altos de América Latina, así como una amplia gama de servicios de transporte y logística que permiten enfrentar los retos globales actuales

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- by Emilio Sempris and +1
  Yamil Sanchez
- •
- 15
  Climate Change, Panama, Resiliencia, Medio Ambiente

This paper looks at why hardware-financing policies like the UNFCCC's Clean Development Mechanism are inadequate to facilitate low carbon technology transfer to many developing countries.

In 2013, the EEAS and DG Clima wrote a joint reflection paper, “EU climate diplomacy for 2015 and beyond”, in which the idea of commissioning a climate diplomacy narratives project was conceived. This study will seek to contextualise the... more

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- by Jonathan Peters
- •
- 10
  European Studies, Climate Change, Narrative, Diplomacy

Carbon trading, as a market-based climate policy that allows polluters to comply with emissions reductions commitments with tradable pollution rights, is presented by its proponents as the most cost-efficient alternative for climate... more

Carbon trading, as a market-based climate policy that allows polluters to comply with emissions reductions commitments with tradable pollution rights, is presented by its proponents as the most cost-efficient alternative for climate change mitigation, while critics counter that the cost-efficiency argument ignores the harms that result from commodifying carbon. This thesis contributes to this debate, which is fundamental for the future of environmental policies, by exposing the social costs of carbon trading and making the case against its inclusion in the climate policy-mix. The argument developed here draws from theoretical contributions on the social costs of private activities and on value conflicts, as well as critical perspectives on the neoliberalization of nature and the limits of the market.
Emissions trading was firstly proposed as an alternative to efficiency-maximizing or pigouvian environmental taxation. Based on the property rights approach to social costs, emissions trading would allow regulators to escape the impossible task of calculating the optimal level of pollution and offer instead a cost-efficient way to achieve an exogenously determined level of pollution. This theoretical shift would allow economics to be centred on discussing the best means to achieve given ends and relived it of discussing ends. The ends-means dichotomy, however, does not hold outside textbook economics, as well as the description of emissions trading as a simple and efficient alternative to direct regulation. As the US experience with emissions trading shows, creating markets for tradable pollution rights requires government investment in a regulatory apparatus that is no less complex than what is required for direct regulation or taxation. This experience also illustrates how the purported efficiency of emissions trading systems is a flip side of their weak environmental performance and their disregard for social justice and democratic participation.
Carbon trading schemes created under the Kyoto Protocol raise additional problems. Compared to “cap and trade” schemes based on a single pollutant and a restricted number of sources, schemes like the EU Emissions Trading System are more complex and require further government intervention. Furthermore, flexibility instruments like the Clean Development Mechanism allow industrialized countries to pollute beyond their emissions commitments and raise issues with the disputable integrity of methodologies that account for emissions reductions from offset projects relative to an arbitrary baseline. The dismal performance of these schemes is illustrated by their inability to provide an incentive to decarbonization, while distributing rents to polluters and creating new sources of corruption.
These issues are not reducible to discussions on accounting procedures and other technicalities. Opening the “black box” of carbon quantification and commensuration reveals that its calculations sideline relevant uncertainties and assume a degree of accuracy that scientific knowledge and technology cannot deliver in the present. Yet, since accounting for emissions increases or reductions requires political decisions on what is to be accounted for, what is the relevant metric and what is an acceptable degree of uncertainty, further scientific and technological developments are not enough to make it possible to produce the unambiguous numbers that carbon trading requires.
Going further on the discussion of the implications of carbon commensuration and abstraction, this thesis presents an argument against the inclusion of carbon trading in the climate policy-mix based on four normative critiques. With the support of critical literature, it is argued that carbon trading is ineffective, undemocratic, unjust and unethical and that, for these reasons, it can only be considered as a cost-effective policy when its social costs are ignored. An argument against carbon trading reformism is then presented by illustrating how trying to mitigate the negative effects of carbon markets by imposing restrictions on trading leads to the erosion of these markets. A better alternative is claimed to be supporting climate policies that foster a plurality of values and deliver social benefits.
The thesis concludes by advocating a shift in the climate policy debate to a discussion on the values that are fostered or hindered by each policy. A general framework is proposed that respects value pluralism and acknowledges conflicts between incommensurable values, which is not compatible with market-based policies.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, UNCED), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, held 3rd-14th June 1992, launched the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which... more

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, UNCED), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, held 3rd-14th June 1992, launched the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which operates through its annual roadshow the UN Conference of Parties (COP) that seeks to establish sustainable management of the global climate system.

The 'Earth Summit' by UN in 1992 brought the problems in climate to the attention of even some of the world's most remote and isolated nations. One of these nations was the Hopi Nation in Arizona, a non-sovereign nation - which the UN labels as 'indigenous peoples'. In a long chain of events beginning from the League of Nations' decision in 1926 to deny the First Nations of Americas and the small island nations' representation in that international forum, its successor the United Nations, turned down four attempts by the Hopi Nation to raise the issue between 1948 and 1992. Finally, in the immediate aftermath of the Rio Earth Summit (1992), the United Nations Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar authorised the Hopi Nation to table the matter to the floor of UN General Assembly 10th-11th December 1992.

The First Nations of Americas Ethnoclimatology Motion and the Tradition-Keepers ('Faith-Keepers') background to that motion is elaborated here in this UNFCCC submission with further points were raised in 1st-2nd October 2018 at CRIAS conference. This contextualises the First Nations of Americas UN General Assembly Investigation Request 101292 which was the Concluding Plea of the World Indigenous Peoples' Joint Summit with the United Nations Parties ('Member States') Delegations to open the first UN Year of the Indigenous People (1993) to other ethnoclimatologies appearing world wide. The Geophysical Annotations were discussed at the Cochabamba-Tiquipaya Climate Summit (CMPCC1) in aftermath of the collapsed Copenhagen Climate Summit COP15 (2009) with the request from the UNESCO Delegation of the Plurinational State of Bolivia on 7th January 2010 and His Excellency President Evo Morales Ayma.

The key tenents of the Geophysical Annotations being:

(1) A signal noise from a substantial radiocarbon-dilution effect due to major sea level retreats and rises during the Ice Ages that depressurised methane clathrates - releasing copious amounts of methane and carbon dioxide into air from depressurised seabed clathrates and also from thawing terra firma permafrost; this results in regressive, or sideway, 14C readings in tree rings ("tree rings in a wrong order"). Thus, the Ice Ages era (the last glacial maxium to holocene thermal maximum period) cores of the tree trunks can appear substantially 14C-younger than the tree trunks' latest (outermost) tree-rings which cannot be the case due to the extreme steadiness of the radiocarbon's decay rate.

(2) Methane accumulates to upper troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere: hence any methane signature in the ice cores is only from methane-in-transit. Additionally the global warming episode that ended the ice ages had heavy methane loads that warmed and melted away most of the era's recent ice surfaces, thus obliterating the-then-most recently laid down snow stratum (leaving behind the earlier less methane rich snow layers). This caused incomplete records (time gaps) in the ice cores, and hence "global warming" always appears "before" higher atmospheric CO2 or CH4 levels (hence appearing as if them being 'respondents', rather than the drivers of climate warning).

(3) Noting that the partial melting equations can also be run inverse direction, it is proposed that the Pleistocene glaciations resulted in damage to Peridotite which partially melted producing basalt deposition in a large scale onto the seafloor in vast effusive eruptions with field emission of heat rather than radial spot emission of heat like in modern-day Surtseyan eruptions that have only a minimal heat crossing to sea surface due to small spatial extent of hot subsea surface. The vaporisation of sea water in field emission is vast due to spatial extent of hot subsea surface greatly exceeding the thickness of overlying water column, leading to runaway snowfalls. This caused an inflated size hydrological cycle which effectively washed out atmosphere-generated radiocarbon while geological seabed-associated depressurised carbon-12 was being released en masse leading to negligible carbon-14 readings (the radiocarbon-dilution effect by the Pleistocene's hydrological cycle / sea bed depressurisation).

On these three premises, the First Nations of Americans Ethnoclimatology Motion at the United Nations General Assembly on 10th-11th December 1992 is proposed as a variant possibility to the climate theories advocated aggressively by the Western Group of Nations and their influential academia. Its implications to present-day climate change suggest that the Polar Ice Caps will continue on their much-faster-than-anticipated loss trajectory to violent collapses. This aspect was highlighted in Sea Research Society's Evidence Giving at the UK Houses of Parliament in Environmental Audit Committee evidence giving on 5th and 24th April 2017. The urgency of situation is underlined by the fact that despite world-wide economic shut down by covid-19, carbon dioxide has continued its rapid rise to 417 parts per million indicating that time to act is running out as the remaining North Pole marine ice cap is soon to melt away and then destabilise the surrounding glaciers post Arctic sea ice (most notably the Greenland Ice Sheet).

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- by Veli Albert Kallio
- •
- 341
  Buddhism, Hinduism, Native American Religions, Sumerian Religion

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (Convention) central principle of equity and ambition. However, the current negotiations toward a new climate... more

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities is the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (Convention) central principle of equity and ambition. However, the current negotiations toward a new climate agreement to be made in Paris in December 2015 risk redefining common but differentiated responsibilities as subjective, by allowing States to self-differentiate their mitigation commitments.

Climate change is a global ecological crisis that demands a global diplomatic response. The Convention sets a framework for that response, but it has not yet adopted an agreement with universal effect.

Debates about common but differentiated responsibilities have recurred since the Convention’s drafting. The Kyoto Protocol implemented a binary differentiation between developed Annex I Parties and developing Non-Annex I Parties. Through the Bali Action Plan, the Parties sought a more universal treaty that differentiated between Parties according to the annexes. In Copenhagen in 2009, these negotiations failed.

As a result, the Parties to the Convention launched a new track of
negotiations in Durban in 2011, aiming to adopt a new agreement under the Convention, applicable to all Parties. Controversially, the mandate agreed in Durban did not refer to either common but differentiated responsibilities or the annexes. The new agreement is due to be agreed in Paris in December 2015.

In the negotiations since Durban, States have endeavoured to reconcile the mandated universality of the new agreement with common but differentiated responsibilities. These negotiations have confirmed that the Parties to the new agreement will indeed be differentiated, but have inched towards a model of self-differentiation.

The draft text of the new agreement contains several overlapping models for differentiation, including: retaining the existing annexes; creating new annexes; adopting a global emissions budget and equity reference framework; allowing Parties to self-differentiate subject to a formal equity review process; and allowing Parties to self-differentiate without a formal review.

The Paris conference is highly likely to incorporate one of the two self-differentiation models into the new agreement. If it does not include an objective equity review process, it will redefine common but differentiated responsibilities to be nationally determined, and so subjective.

This will both reinforce and reflect existing inequities between States.

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- by David A J Tong
- •
- 10
  Climate Law, Climate Change Law, Kyoto Protocol, UNFCCC

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- by Moustapha Gueye
- •
- 11
  Climate Change, International Trade, WTO law, Trade and Development

The UN Climate Summit in Paris in December 2015 was a major success for EU climate diplomacy, being far away from the Copenhagen blow to the EU's self-image as a global climate leader in 2009. In the run-up to Paris, credibility in the... more

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- by Rike Sohn and +1
  Center for European Integration Studies
- •
- 4
  Global Governance, Environmental Policy and Governance, European Union, UNFCCC

The working paper examines the UN climate conference (COP26) organised in Glasgow in November 2021 as a transnational mega-event, which constituted not only an important moment in international climate talks, but also a temporary... more

The working paper examines the UN climate conference (COP26) organised in Glasgow in November 2021 as a transnational mega-event, which constituted not only an important moment in international climate talks, but also a temporary convergence point for a multitude of actors and an arena for conflicts and contestation over framing within a broader global policy space. This perspective allows us to offer a view of the current state of global climate politics more comprehensive than those of analyses focused mainly on the negotiations. Using collaborative event ethnography, over two weeks eight researchers identified the material, spatial and social dimensions of the conference. We identify three circles of climate governance, which framed practices, interactions and debates in Glasgow. These comprise an inner circle of state-led negotiations (‘The In’), an official side programme (‘The Off’) and a relatively heterogeneous wider environment of self-organised events (‘The Fringe’). Each circle is populated by a different set of actors and enacts a distinct representation of ‘the global’. Our analysis of dynamics within each of these circles shows that climate governance has entered a new and contradictory phase, where some boundaries are blurred while others are reaffirmed, and where old conflicts resurface while new dividing lines appear. The Paris architecture for reporting and review has been finalised, but thus far the new approach has failed to close gaps between pledges and objectives for mitigation and climate finance. Global political and corporate elites have seemingly come to acknowledge the climate emergency and the need for a global low-carbon transformation, but the solutions proposed in Glasgow remained partial and fragile, and tightly contained within the dominant horizon of capitalist market- and techno-fixes. The communication strategy of the UNFCCC and the UK Presidency used increasingly radical terms to convey urgency and momentum, which in turn risked emptying activist notions of their content and force. A growing part of the climate movement reacted with critiques of corporate takeover and calls for “real zero” instead of “net zero”. In the conclusion, we examine a series of contentious issues and provide avenues for reflection on the future of climate governance.

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- by Stefan C . Aykut and +1
  Emilie D'AMICO
- •
- 4
  Climate Change, UNFCCC, Climate Politics, Climate Governance

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- by Moustapha Gueye
- •
- 11
  Climate Change, International Trade, WTO law, Trade and Development

This introduction to "Negotiating Climate Change in Crisis" positions the volume as an intervention, collecting together indicative contributions regarding what social scientists, humanities scholars and climate activists around the world... more

This introduction to "Negotiating Climate Change in Crisis" positions the volume as an intervention, collecting together indicative contributions regarding what social scientists, humanities scholars and climate activists around the world think needs to be done in terms of both understanding why climate action has failed to dramatically reduce emissions to date, and proposing some routes towards radical climate change action now. That is, the book is intended to provide an affirmative set of ideas about what is to be done and how it can be done, to bring about radical climate change governance so that we have a chance of avoiding runaway climate change. We are publishing this collection of essays in the months leading up to the high-profile and eagerly awaited COP26 UN climate change conference, due to take place in Glasgow (Scotland, UK) in November 2021. At this conference, all the major stakeholders of the global climate change negotiation process will be present, including heads of state, large national government delegations, policy advisers, NGO and social movement activists, multinational corporations, industry associations, and inter-governmental institutions. There will be significant media interest in COP26, reaching millions of people around the world, linked, for example, with the re-entering of the agreement by the US, the newly entwined crises of COVID-19 and climate change, and negotiations around the form and content of Green New Deal proposals. We hope that this collection of essays will contribute to this discussion. Despite more than thirty years of high-level, global talks on climate change, we are still seeing emissions rising dramatically around the world. Whatever we have done on this planet in terms of climate mitigation over the past thirty plus years has not worked. Given that most climate scientists believe we are soon running out of time, the authors contributing to this volume ask what has gone wrong and what now needs to be done. We hope the essays collated here will help us move more radically and urgently in the direction needed.

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- by Dessy Nuraulia
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- 7
  Climate Change, European Union, China, Coal Mining

İklim Adaleti Mücadelesi İçin 10 Durak, dünyada ve Türkiye'de otoriter popülist iktidarların ahbap-çavuş kapitalizmi ve milliyetçilikle örülü kalkınma telaşının orta yerinde, yerele sırtını yaslayıp uluş-aşırı dayanışma ağlarıyla tabandan... more

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- by Ethemcan Turhan and +2
  Cem Iskender AYDIN
  Arif Cem Gundogan
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- 15
  Social Movements, Climate Change, Political Ecology, Agroecology

Créés par les textes climatiques fondateurs de 1992, le principe des Responsabilités Communes mais Différenciées (CBDR) et celui des Responsabilités Communes mais Différenciées et des Capacités Respectives (CBDR-RC) sont souvent observés,... more

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- by Louison Fonteneau
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- 9
  Climate Change, International Negotiation, Negotiation, UNFCCC

While there is widespread agreement that climate change has negative implications for the enjoyment of human rights, it remains unclear in what circumstances State action associated with climate change amounts to a human rights violation.... more

The CDM Policy Dialogue was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Durban, South Africa, in 2011 by the Chair of the CDM Executive Board and the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on... more

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- by Ernesta Swanepoel
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- 6
  Climate Change, Clean Development Mechanism, CDM, UNFCCC

UNFCCC

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