COVID-19 to hinder international climate diplomacy

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Made In

Subject Climate diplomacy. Significance Amid frustration at the limited outcomes of last year’s COP25 conference in Madrid, hopes had been building that new commitments on climate action would be made in 2020. The global COVID-19 crisis has broken momentum towards such goals, seeing several international climate conferences postponed, including COP26, which was to take place in Glasgow in November. With political energy now focused completely on COVID-19, hopes that COP26 would increase ambitions to meet Paris Agreement temperature goals have been dashed. Impacts Trends of increasing renewable energy will remain consistent, given policy support. Climate ‘emergency’ rhetoric will run into public fatigue after the health emergency. The US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on November 4 will be a flashpoint in presidential elections.

Prospects for renewable energy to end-2017

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Electric Power ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Energy Information Administration ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pull Out ◽  
The Us ◽  
Energy Information

Subject Prospects for renewable energy to end-2017. Significance On June 1, US President Donald Trump's administration announced its intent to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Later that week, the US Energy Information Administration revealed in a report that renewables set a record of generating 10% of the country’s electric power in the month of March, highlighting that renewable energy has strong momentum that should carry it through shorter term policy fluctuations.

US backsliding will drag on global climate progress

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Federal Support ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Climate Action

Subject The Paris Agreement and US withdrawal. Significance President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change on June 1, prompting criticism from around the world. While current pledges are unlikely to change and the agreement will not see flight or withdrawal by other countries, US withdrawal imperils the ability of the agreement’s structure to accelerate climate action to a scale necessary to meet its objective of limiting global warming to below 2 degrees centigrade by 2100. Impacts The US private sector and sub-national polities will increase their climate action, though the loss of federal support will still be felt. A future US administration could re-enter the agreement, but substantial momentum will be lost diplomatically in the intervening years. Calls for greater adaptation -- rather than mitigation -- funds from climate-vulnerable states will grow more strident.

International climate summit ends in holding pattern

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Carbon Markets ◽  
Content Type ◽  
International Climate Policy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Zero Carbon ◽  
Slow Progress ◽  
International Climate ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Technical Rules

Subject The COP25 summit. Significance The annual UN climate conference (COP25) in Madrid concluded on December 15, after a record two-day extension, but with negotiations still deadlocked over the technical rules for carbon markets functioning under the Paris Agreement. Despite global protests, the emergence of Extinction Rebellion, and the rise to prominence of Greta Thunberg, discussions proceeded sluggishly over preparations for countries to update their national climate pledges at next year’s conference in Glasgow. Impacts The US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement takes effect in November and will provide further space for laggards to slow progress. Australia’s short-term wildfire challenge will overshadow criticisms of its longer-term domestic and international climate policy. Saudi Arabia, the host of next year’s G20, will aim to deflect attention from fossil fuel issues towards biodiversity and plastic litter. New Zealand’s ‘Zero Carbon Act’ will become the global model for domestic climate legislation, replacing the UK Climate Change Act.

Climate talks highlight shortcomings in global efforts

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
The Us ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Trump Administration ◽  
Credibility Gap

Significance Washington has re-joined the Paris agreement and announced new climate commitments, but still faces a credibility gap. It must demonstrate by November’s COP26 summit, how it can meet its new goals. Impacts Private sector companies will face increasing pressure to set net-zero targets. The use of natural gas as a transition fossil fuel will face greater scrutiny as pressure for drastic climate action increases. Fossil fuel subsidy reform is likely to return to G20 priorities after having been neglected during the US Trump administration.

Prospects for climate governance in 2017

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Energy Capacity ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Climate Governance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Nationally Determined Contributions ◽  
Collective Commitment ◽  
International Climate

Subject Prospects for climate governance in 2017. Significance The November 7-18 COP22 climate conference produced a new political declaration, the 'Marrakech Action Proclamation for Climate and Sustainable Development’, reaffirming the collective commitment to step up climate action to meet the temperature goal of keeping warming to below 2 degrees centigrade. Upward trends in renewable energy capacity are also promising, particularly as countries prepare to turn their nationally-determined contributions made under the Paris Agreement into reality. This progress remains fragile, however, because of uncertainty about the extent of US backtracking on international climate cooperation following the election of Donald Trump as the next US president.

Pandemic will not stop international climate action

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Business Cases ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Global Carbon

Significance This has deprived social movements of opportunities to mobilise public opinion. However, a recent surge of major economies and businesses setting long-term ‘net zero’ emission targets offers hope that 2019 might have been the peak year for global carbon emissions. Impacts Campaigners will bring more litigation cases to press for more ambitious national policies. Carbon border pricing will become more attractive in higher-ambition jurisdictions, but it will also trigger geopolitical pushback. Efficiency investments in energy and transport will slow as demand falls and capital becomes tighter, affecting their business cases. A confirmed Biden win in yesterday’s US presidential election would see US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement reversed.

IS SUPPORT FOR INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE ACTION CONDITIONAL ON PERCEPTIONS OF RECIPROCITY? EVIDENCE FROM SURVEY EXPERIMENTS IN CANADA, THE US, NORWAY, AND SWEDEN

COSMOS ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
pp. 43-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
ENDRE TVINNEREIM ◽  
ERICK LACHAPELLE ◽  
CHRISTOPHER BORICK
Keyword(s):  
Population Based ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Multilateral Cooperation ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
The Us ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Citizen Support ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Population Based Survey

The challenges of collective action are presented by leaders in many industrialized countries as a major obstacle to effective action on climate change. Notably, the argument goes, a fair international solution must appropriately constrain large greenhouse gas emitters like China. This paper asks whether citizen support for multilateral climate policies also depends on whether other countries are seen to reciprocate. We analyze results from population-based survey experiments in the US, Canada, Norway, and Sweden, asking subjects whether they think their country should commit internationally to emission reductions. Randomly assigned sub-samples were presented with statements suggesting that China may or may not choose to cooperate, or alternatively making no mention of China. We find that reciprocity is important to respondents in the smaller Scandinavian countries but not in North America. These findings suggest that country size is more important than national traditions of multilateral cooperation in predicting support for unilateral climate action.

Filling in for Governments? The Role of the Private Actors in the International Climate Regime

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-28
Author(s):  
Charlotte Streck
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
State Actor ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Private Actors

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change abandons the Kyoto Protocol’s paradigm of binding emissions targets and relies instead on countries’ voluntary contributions. However, the Paris Agreement encourages not only governments but also sub-national governments, corporations and civil society to contribute to reaching ambitious climate goals. In a transition from the regulated architecture of the Kyoto Protocol to the open system of the Paris Agreement, the Agreement seeks to integrate non-state actors into the treaty-based climate regime. In 2014 the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Peru and France created the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (and launched the Global Climate Action portal). In December 2019, this portal recorded more than twenty thousand climate-commitments of private and public non-state entities, making the non-state venues of international climate meetings decisively more exciting than the formal negotiation space. This level engagement and governments’ response to it raises a flurry of questions in relation to the evolving nature of the climate regime and climate change governance, including the role of private actors as standard setters and the lack of accountability mechanisms for non-state actions. This paper takes these developments as occasion to discuss the changing role of private actors in the climate regime.

Trump may destabilise Korean Peninsula

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
North And South ◽  
Trump Administration

Subject US relations with North and South Korea under the incoming Trump administration. Significance The period of transition to Donald Trump's presidency in the United States has displayed neglect and misunderstanding of Korean peninsula affairs, adding to risks for the region as it approaches a period of significant strategic challenge. Impacts Until Trump's team enunciates policy on the Koreas, responses to events will be unprepared and reactive. Trump's policy will influence presidential elections in South Korea, where left-of-centre candidates question the value of the US alliance. The Trump administration’s policy and communication via Twitter heightens risk of misunderstanding within the region.

Nicaragua pandemic downplaying is a political gamble

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Government ◽  
Trade And Investment ◽  
Economic And Social Impacts ◽  
Opposition Parties

Significance Some initiatives have been introduced to help counter the economic and social impacts of the pandemic, but the government’s actions appear to be driven less by the need to address the health crisis than by a desire to shore up political support ahead of elections next year. Impacts Opposition parties are beginning to forge electoral alliances in the hope of benefitting from popular frustration with the government. Trade and investment into Nicaragua will remain minimal, with external firms wary about the potential prevalence of COVID-19. The outcome of the US presidential elections in November will affect the potential for US aid and investment.

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