A new chapter in the UN climate change negotiations? First steps under the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action

Climate Law ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kati Kulovesi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Climate Change Negotiations ◽  
Assessment Report ◽  
The Road ◽  
Public Pressure ◽  
Recent Developments

This article discusses recent developments in the UN climate change negotiations in light of the Bonn Climate Change Conference in May 2012. It highlights the Bonn meeting as the first opportunity to assess the influence on the UNFCCC process of the Durban Package and the new Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action. It argues that the main impression from the Bonn meeting is that the Durban outcome has indeed affected the dynamics of the UNFCCC negotiations and holds potential for far-reaching changes. Provided that all goes well, the combination of new bodies and processes created in Cancun and Durban, the forthcoming Fifth Assessment Report by the IPCC, and the likely public pressure following its release could open a new chapter in the UNFCCC process and lead to a more effective multilateral response to the climate change challenge. Still, the combination of a palpable rift within G-77/China and traditional divides between developed and developing countries on issues such as finance and technology means that the road ahead is likely to be a difficult one.

China’s Evolving Development Dilemma in the Context of the North-South Climate Governance Debate

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 699-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyeeta Gupta ◽  
King Yip Wong
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Climate Governance ◽  
Climate Change Negotiations ◽  
The North ◽  
Zero Sum

This paper examines China’s policy and position in relation to the evolving climate change negotiations in order to explain how China is dealing with the dilemma of meeting its growing development needs while reducing ghg emissions. It argues that global climate governance requires steering and leadership to deal with the interlocked political process; that the developing countries (dcs) right to develop is challenged by the need for ecosystemic standards especially as climate change is seen as a zero-sum game as the more one country emits the less another one can. This is especially problematic as Industrialized countries (ics) appear to be both unwilling and unable to increase growth without increasing emissions. This explains China’s policy of insisting on its right to develop, of demanding that ics reduce their emissions and that they fulfil their obligations under the fccc, while expressing its willingness to take on a voluntary target. The paper argues that China’s state-led transition has eight unique characteristics that may allow it to lead as it moves beyond a no-regrets policy to a circular and green economy, cooperating with other dcs and mobilizing conscious green values in citizens. The question remains—will the initial success and scale of state-led transition lead the global green transition to a sustainable world?

The Media and the Major Emitters: Media Coverage of International Climate Change Policy

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 67-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandra Lal Pandey ◽  
Priya A. Kurian
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Study ◽  
News Frames ◽  
Climate Change Negotiations

News media outlets are crucial for the dissemination of information on climate change issues, but the nature of the coverage varies across the world, depending on local geopolitical and economic contexts. Despite extensive scholarship on media and climate change, less attention has been paid to comparing how climate change is reported by news media in developed and developing countries. This article undertakes a cross-national study of how elite newspapers in four major greenhouse gas emitting countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India—frame coverage of climate change negotiations. We show that framing is similar by these newspapers in developing countries, but there are clear differences in framing in the developed world, and between the developed and developing countries. While an overwhelming majority of these news stories and the frames they deploy are pegged to the stance of domestic institutions in the developing countries, news frames from developed countries are more varied.

scholarly journals Compensating for Climate Change Loss and Damage

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward A Page ◽  
Clare Heyward
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Negotiations ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Loss And Damage ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Compensatory Justice

With the adoption of the Warsaw International Mechanism in 2013, the international community recognised that anthropogenic climate change will result in a range of adverse effects despite policies of mitigation and adaptation. Addressing these climatic ‘losses and damages’ is now a key dimension of international climate change negotiations. This article presents a normative framework for thinking about loss and damage designed to inform, and give meaning to, these negotiations. It argues that policies addressing loss and damage, particularly those targeting developing countries, should respect norms of compensatory justice which aim to make victims of unwarranted climatic disruptions ‘whole again’. The article develops a typology of different kinds of climate change disruption and uses it to (1) explain the differences between ‘losses’ and ‘damages’, (2) assign priorities among compensatory measures seeking to address loss and damage and (3) explore a range of equitable responses to loss and damage.

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