Global Climate Change Policy Essay Example

Climate change is a very difficult issue to deal with, because all countries pursue different goals and finding a consensus that would satisfy all parties is nearly impossible. There were several attempts to work out the common vision and approaches to the climate change at the beginning of the XXI century, but they were not effective enough. For example, the 2009 Copenhagen Summit was an international event that attracted a very large number of participants and there were many hopes that the new climate change policy and priorities will be developed. However, despite being one the major international events, the 2009 Copenhagen Summit did not provide the proper strategies for the resolution of the key climate change issues. The economic reasons might have been the main driver of the disputes between the countries.
The UN Climate Change Conference was organized in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. It did not meet the stated objective of developing the new agreement that would replace the Kyoto Protocol that was to expire in 2012. The Kyoto Protocol is a treaty that regulates the allowed emissions of the greenhouse gases, which cause the climate change. This treaty is considered by many to be ineffective, because the countries continue to have a huge negative impact on the global climate. The Copenhagen summit was the last in the series of the international meetings that took place in different parts of the world since 2007. In Copenhagen, the countries were discussing the emission reduction targets and the timeline for the changes.
One more item of the agenda was how to make the advanced technologies more available in the developing countries. In general, there were many expectations concerning the new agreement even though there was not a consensus how to balance the emission levels of the developed and the developing countries. The developing countries were polluting the atmosphere not as much as the developed countries and for them limiting the carbon emissions would mean slower economic growth. So there was suggestion to monitor compliance of the countries that signed the agreement and make each country submit an annual report on greenhouse emissions to the United Nations.
The main failure of the Copenhagen summit was that a legally binding treaty was not signed. After the end of the summit, the format of the conference and the methods of negotiations were criticized. As the result, there was no any new strategy concerning sustainability, so the businesses did not have to make any changes in their practices that were very harmful for the environment. Despite knowing that there was a dramatic climate change, the rules for the countries and private actors remained old and the problems related to the climate change would only aggravate in the near future.
Nevertheless five countries – the United States, China, India, South Africa and Brazil – agreed to sign the Copenhagen Accord. In accordance with this Accord, the developed countries had to submit the new targets for carbon emissions. The developing countries had to explain how they were going to adapt to the new emission reduction plans and were expected to assess their initiatives every two years. The funds were provided for the development and introduction of the new technologies. The Copenhagen Accord helped to continue the discussions at the international level and proved that the major countries were willing to reach a consensus in the future.
One more success of the Copenhagen summit is that the countries recognized the scientific evidence of the climate change and agreed to limit the rise of the global temperature to less than two degrees Celsius. The new discourse is extremely important for further cooperation between the countries and the problem will be addressed differently because there is no time and opportunities for the political policies that harm the environment. The countries will be more specific in terms of their emission reduction targets. For example, the USA agreed to reduce the emissions by 42% by 2030. In turn, China agreed to cut the carbon intensity of the economy by 40% by 2020.
2015 became a year when the countries reached the agreement on many problematic issues that contribute to the climate change. This time the Climate Change Conference was held in Paris. The countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol and the other countries took part in this conference. The main result of this conference was successful negotiation of the Paris Agreement that will help to reduce the negative effects of the climate change in the next years. 196 countries participated in the discussions and if 55 countries that contribute to 55% of global emissions sign this agreement, than it will become legally binding for everyone. It is expected that the agreement will be signed in New York in 2016-2017.
If countries follow the Paris Agreement, the global warming will be reduced to less than 2 degrees Celsius in the XXI century and the emissions will have to be close to zero by 2050. At the same time no deadlines and country specific targets were set up and this is the main difference with the Kyoto Protocol. It was possible to reach the agreement thanks to the proactive position of the countries with the largest economies – the United States and China. France as one of the strongest countries in Europe in terms of diplomacy was also a perfect place for organizing the UN Climate Change Conference. Moreover, this country is a good example of how to decarbonize the electrical power production and the fossil fuel energy.
In accordance with the Paris Agreement, the European Union will have to cut emissions by 40% and the United States – by 28%. China will have to start reducing the emissions after 2030. Moreover, the countries will need to present the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions that will stipulate what exactly the countries will do in order to reduce their impact on the climate. The emissions targets will be updated every five years and each time they will be increased in order to reach the desired goals of the Paris Agreement. In addition, not only the countries, but also some other actors will be responsible for the reduction of emissions. The cities and private business will play a much bigger role in fighting the climate change.
One separate issue of the 2015 Climate Change Conference in Paris was the provision of the finance resources for the poor countries. A lot of resources are needed for the acquisition of the clean technologies that will help to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and improve the infrastructure that harms the environment. In Copenhagen, the poor countries received a promise that they would get sufficient resources for the purposes mentioned above, but because of the absence of the official agreement, the funds were insufficient for fighting the climate change. On the contrary, in Paris the poor countries received assurances that the World Bank and some governments will commit more to the financial support, more specifically they will receive $100 billion by 2020 and more finance after 2020.
There are concerns that the ambitious targets that were set by the majority of the governments in Paris will not be reached, because they require very serious political will and at the moment they are not legally binding. There are many items in the Paris Agreement that are optional for compliance. For example, the United States wanted to introduce the binding requirements for the transparency, but the non-binding emissions commitments, because in this case there will be more chances that the document will be adopted by the U.S. Senate.
One more issue that was debated was the differentiated responsibility of the countries which means that the developed countries will reduce the emissions, and the developing countries will continue to increase the emissions, because their economies need to grow more actively in order to reach the same level of wealth as in the developed countries. In addition, the countries debated on the “loss and damage” issue. Now there are many natural catastrophes in the poor countries that have a very little impact on the climate. Such countries would like to have more assistance from the developed countries that are indirectly responsible for the increased number of natural disasters due to the global warming.
In any case the Paris Agreement may be called a historic and ambitious document that will have a very large influence on the development of the countries based on the introduction of the new technologies and innovations that will help to the reduce the ecological footprint. The transition to the low carbon economy is inevitable now and should be a sign for the private companies in which direction to develop their business strategies.
In conclusion, in the past two decades the climate dramatically changed. Some social and economic trends contributed to the deterioration of the climate and if the countries do not change their approach to the development, the humankind will face many climate related problems in the future. There have already been many attempts to change the policies that would solve the problem of the climate change. In Copenhagen in 2009 and in Paris in 2015 approximately 200 countries met to discuss the ways how the greenhouse gas emissions that cause the global warming could be cut and the other environmental problems such as deforestation and excessive use of the fossil fuels could be resolved. The summit in Copenhagen was ineffective, because the countries did not reach the agreement. On the contrary, in Paris thanks to the willingness of the major countries to cooperate, the agreement was reached. According to the Paris Agreement, the countries will be much more active in reducing the carbon emissions and implementing the environment friendly policies. Even the critics and representatives of such organizations as Green Peace think that the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris was a step forward despite the ambiguity of the agreed goals. This conference showed a significant progress in the international environmental agenda and therefore the world community may expect some significant changes in the way how the technologies are used in order to support further sustainable development around the world.