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Begin New Search Political Geography Australia Author Steve Vanderheiden

1. Introductory Note

Author:
Steve Vanderheiden and Jonathan Pickering
Publication Date:
01-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
Recent developments in climate policy have done little to suggest that the world is acting quickly enough to avoid a dangerous rise in global temperatures. Despite some important steps in national policy-making-including the commencement of Australia ' s carbon pricing mechanism and the piloting of subnational emissions trading in China - the polarized nature of the climate debate in the United States continues to obstruct progress. Moreover, a substantial gap remains between the current policies of various countries and the level of mitigation needed to stay within the internationally agreed limit of a degrees Celsius rise in global temperature. To some observers, the United Nations climate change conference in Durban in 2011 offered hope for a long-term agreement that would be more inclusive than the Kyoto Protocol by securing the participation of major developing countries, such as India and China (which do not having binding mitigation commitments under the protocol), as well as developed countries, such as the United States (which failed to ratify the protocol). Yet, as it becomes increasingly clear that global emissions will need to peak within the next few years if we are to stem global warming, a dramatic change in short-term policies is also required.
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Australia

2. Coaxing Climate Policy Leadership

Author:
Steve Vanderheiden
Publication Date:
01-2013
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Carnegie Council
Abstract:
With the failure of the international community to negotiate a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol in late 2011, and with little prospect of U.S. ratification of any treaty framework that includes binding green¬house emission targets, hope for a sustainable and effective international climate policy appears dim. As of 2012, only Australia, New Zealand, and the European Union continue to endorse binding post-Kyoto greenhouse emissions targets, with countries representing half the emissions controlled under Kyoto rejecting any further binding mitigation commitments in the absence of a treaty framework that includes the United States. Further, the remaining commitments are likely to be tested by political and economic turmoil that strains the ability of the governments to maintain them. While the "roadmap" that emerged from the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP-17)of the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)-held in Durban, South Africa-calls for a post-Kyoto treaty to be negotiated by 2015 and to take effect by 2020,ongoing reluctance by China, India, and the United States to accept binding emissions caps threatens to frustrate progress toward any such future agreement. Given the rapidly closing window of opportunity to begin reversing current trends of increasing global emissions and to eventually stabilize atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at levels that would prevent the dire consequences predicted by "business as usual" trajectories, significant mitigation action remains urgently needed, with climate change adaptation programs becoming increasingly important.
Political Geography:
United States, China, Europe, India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand