Politoblog

For 26 years, the UN has convened the countries of the world at COP climate summits. This “Conference of the Parties” unites all the parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and is the opportunity for states to update their climate commitments. This year’s COP will take place in Glasgow – but will it be the success it needs to be? I question our reliance on these climate conferences as they are rarely successful. First, the sheer number of member states is a problem in itself. As David Victor explains, it’s impossible for 197 states to agree on climate negotiations, and the UN is not correct forum to achieve consensus. In 1992, the French government was pushing for well-defined targets and deadlines to achieve them by, but the Bush government refused to attend the Rio Summit if this were the case. Again, in 2001, the USA left negotiations on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. They even abandoned the Paris Agreement (although this has since been reversed). We can ...