Global Governance : Environmental Flashcards
Define Anthropocentrism
Belief that human needs and interests are of overarching moral and philosophical importance
Define entropy
A tendency towards decay or disintegration occurs in all closed systems
Define Ecocentrism
A theoretical orientation that gives priority to the maintainance of ecological balance
Problems with Global Governance environmental
- Richer countries are more likely to cut their use but developing countries need it to grow and develop economically
- All need to cut it or it will not be effective
- Industrialising nations e.g china, India etc refuse
- Developing countries blame industrialisation caused by richer countries for climate change
- Countries that produce high resources want compensation e.g saudia arabia and Nigeria’s oil
- Countries can use exploitation i.e a rich country paying a poor country to do their pollution cuts
Why is there a need for global governance environmentally ?
- this is beacause every state contributes
- every state is affected
- every state can make an impact in resolving
Realist and Liberal views on environmental global governance
Realists
- most likely would not want to give up their state sovereignty to a supranational organisation
Liberals
- supranational organisations would aid to the decrease in the use of fossil fuels
Explain the global commons
The UN defines the global commons as
‘Resources or areas that lie outside the political reach of any one nation-state’
Examples of what global commons include :
- the High seas e.g BP Deepwater horizon spill in 2010
- the atmosphere e.g smog in China
- the polar regions e.g 2007 saw 2 Russian explorers planting their flag on the N.Pole
-outer space e.g as many as 500,000 human debris
What international laws are designed to protect the global commons ?
The UN Convention of the Laws of the sea [UNCLOS]
The Antarctic Treaty system
The UN Framework convention of climate change [UNFCCC]
The tragedy of the commons
Economic problems that occurs when people attempt to maximise their money from a shared resource
It then becomes a tragedy for everyone as the resource is either neglected to the point where it is unattainable or not usable
Examples
- China accounted for 500,000 deaths via pollution, this contributed to them agreeing to the Paris agreement
What is climate change ?
The increasing and decreasing global temperature of the earth, caused by both natural and human impacts
Natural and Human causes of climate change
Natural
- sunspots (massive holes in the sun which allow heat to leave and enter / hotter or colder)
- the rotation of sun whilst orbiting changes temp
- the wobbling of the earth on its axis
Human causes
- agriculture
- pollution (air pollution, chemical pollution)
- deforestation as it causes for the removal of oxygen from the atmosphere
Why is international cooperation difficult ?
- Conflict between the collective good and national interest
- Tensions between developed and developing states
- Economic obstacles
- Ideological obstacles
Conflicts between the collective goof and national interests : explain
- each state try to pay as little into making the air / water cleaner
- states will benefit from other states making an effort - encourages them to be ‘free riders’
- states are therefore unwilling to agree to binding targets as they want to maximise benefits
- developed states will be affected (biggest losers) as they are focuses on economic growth concerns
Tensions of developing and developed states : explain
- climate change serves to widen the north-south divide
- outsourcing means that target setting is unfair on southern states
- climate problems have mostly been caused by the north, therefore they should take more repsonsibility
- developing countries are mostly affected by climate problems and also lack mitigation and adaptation strategies to solve thesee
Economic obstacles : explain
- northern countries cannot be held responsible for the ‘unknown consequences’ of emitting co2
- southern states have a right to develop as northern states were able to
Ideological obstacles : explain
- radical / deep ecologists believe the response to climate change is inadequate and they need to go deeper and look at the structural problems
- capitalism is the problem and until profit maximising businesses are eradicated then there will always be environmental issues
- thee is a challenge to get all states to abandon their status quo and adopt a new system
Differences between shallow and deep ecology
Case study : trump administration in denial of climate change ? [2012]
- trump argued that china invented the notion of climate change in order to make the us manufacturing non-competitive
United Nations framework convention on climate change [UNFCCC] (1992)
Initially agreed at the 1992 Rio summit [197 signed and 127 ratified
An international treaty that set up a process through which future international negotiations on climate change could take place. But rules for the UNFCCC are not legally binding
Direct result of the UNFCCC would be ..
Kyoto agreement 1997 - set legally binding targets
Paris agreement 2015 - pledged to keep global temp below 2 degrees
Intergovernmental panel on climate change [IPCC]
This is a group of governnments (190), which collects data on the human causes of climate change. They help to set up policy that tackle and help change environmental policy
They have expert advice on :
- regular assessments of the impact and extent of climate change
- regular assessments of the causes
- possible solutions to reduce the amount of …
BUT CANNOT FORCE THE GOVERNMENT TO DO ANYHTING
How many reports has there been since the IPCC was founded ?
5 reports
Strengths and weaknesses of the IPCC
Strengths
-highly successful inclusive - helping scientists to build skills to help development
-pooling a wide range of expertise
- avoids a bias view from a group of people
Weaknesses
- repots are arguably out of date and need lengthy review
- has been accused of scaremongering (e.g using rising se levels to scare states into paranoia)
What are the aims of international summits ?
- identifying and agreeing the problem and the need for collective action [e.g Rio earth summit 1992]
- agreeing specific action to be taken and making it a reality [e.g Kyoto 1997, Copenhagen 2009, Paris 2015]
The Rio Earth Summit (1992)
This was the first international commitment to tackling climate change 172 governments attended
It paved the way for future discussions on climate change
- states environmental issues are best managed by participation of all citizens
Successes
- it locked signatory states to a process of annual negotiations and was ultimately legally binding
Weaknesses
- little was achieved, as the problem was identified it required collective action and continued commitment
Kyoto summit and protocol (1997)
First one to introduce legally binding emission targets, to attempt to hold states accountable for their actions
Collective action was informed as the Kyoto protocol would not come into force until 55 states would ratify the treaty
Failures
- it did not come into force until 2005, nearly a decade after the summit so no longer valid
-while states deliberates, emissions increased from around 40-50% between 1990 and 2009 - the agreement was not comprehensive with BRICS, this eventually led to USA rejecting the treaty due to confusion of if sttes were being asked to do enough
- Russia and china were not covered by legally binding targets. China did not sign the treaty and Russia took 7 years to ratify
Successes
- ## EU emissions decreased by 8% in appliance to the protocol
Examples of the failures of Kyoto 1997
- China did not sign the treaty and its estimated their emissions has increased by nearly 300%
- USA rejected the treaty, leading to Canada revoking consent
- Russia took 7 years to ratify
Why did USA rejecting Kyoto make it a failure ?
The Kyoto protocol did not include the worlds major polluter, the USA being responsible for around 35% of global emissions
Copenhagen summit (2009)
Copenhagen seeks to tackle more inclusion of both developing and delvoeping states unlike the Kyoto 1997
- it goal was to limit global temp to less than 2 degrees
Strengths
- it was ambitious and set clear goals
Failures
- there were no legally binding targets both all states involved
- not clear didn’t carry the weight of int. law
Paris Summit COP 21 (2015)
Hosted amid high security post the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, seeked to address :
- legally binding targets (Kyoto and Copenhagen has both failed)
- a comprehensive and unified approach
Succceses
- legally binding targets
- kept temperatures rises below 2 degrees and aimed for 1.5
- deal relied on peer pressure as there was not punishments
- developed nations promised to assist developing nations - a figure of 100 billion per year
Failures
-INDCs allows countries to set there own targets, rather to than making them agree to targets that might achieve the reductions needed
-president trump withdrew 2017, meaning the second biggest producer was not bound to cut emissions
What were some of Paris summit 2015 policies / decisions ?
- a fund of 100 billion per year to 2020 in finance of developing countries
- you cannot exit the deal until a minimum of 3 years \
- INDCs required states setting there own goals and plans for cutting of emissions
COP 26
