Climate Change: A Global Diplomatic Challenge

Climate Change is unique among international issues because of its global scale and impact, and the cooperative nature of the plausible solutions. If we are to build a sustainable environment for our species we must act as one world, as opposed to a loose collection of nation-states acting for our own self interest. Our political systems are not designed to meet such ends, so climate change holds an interesting position on the stage of international diplomacy. The foremost authority on climate change in the world is the aforementioned Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It grew out of many various United Nations climate projects and panels and is made up of thousands of scientists from dozens of nations all working to expand our

It seeks to implement post-kyoto agreements applicable to all UNFCC nations. According to the France Diplomatie website “The meeting will mark a decisive stage in negotiations on the future international agreement on a post-2020 regime, and will, as agreed in Durban, adopt the major outlines of that regime.By the end of the meeting, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, all the nations of the world, including the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, will be bound by a universal agreement on climate.” (“France Diplomatie” 2013) In order to prepare for COP21; as of November 12th, 2014 the governments of the US and China have come to an agreement in which the US will lower it’s emissions by about a third by 2025, and China will taper off its emission and begin to reduce them by one third by 2030. China has also agreed that by that time at least 20% of their electricity will come from renewable resources. This would constitute an increase of 1000 GiW of energy from current levels. (Hoye, Yan. 2014) Although some, like US senator Mitch McConnell, have argued that this agreement allows China to “do nothing” for 16 years and places the burden on us, this sentiment is misguided. Because US emissions are down by roughly 10% from 2005 levels, as discussed earlier, The United States will have an easier time of reducing our emissions further to 26%-28% by 2025. By comparison over the last decade China has been developing very rapidly, lifting more than 100 million people out of poverty. The new Chinese middle class consumes more energy, causing China’s emissions to skyrocket during that time. In the last 10 years China has added one and a half the entire US number of coal-fired power plants. In order to reach the agreed upon cuts of up to 30% by 2030 while still maintaining growth China will have to change business as usual drastically. This is one reason for the agreed upon increase in renewable energy