Climate change as a political issue Part 1

Environment and international politics From Stockholm to Copenhagen Session 1

The rise of the environment as a political issue  Since the 1970s, environmental concerns have climbed their way to the top of the political agenda  1972: Meadows report of the Club of Rome  1972: Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment  26 principles of environmental governance  Creation of UNEP

Catastrophes and accidents  1976: Seveso toxic dioxins leak  1979: Three-Mile Island incident  1982: Seveso directive  1984: Bhopal catastrophe  1986: Chernobyl

Scientific discoveries  Man lands on the Moon 1969  Hole in the ozone layer  Discovered in the 1980s  Montreal Protocol 1987  Climate change  First measurements in the 1950s  First models in the 1970s (Hansen)  Creation of the IPCC 1988

The rise of global governance  1987: ‘Our Common Future’ by the World Commission on Environment and Development  ‘Sustainable development’: ‘a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’  Montreal Protocol 1987  Aimed at tackling the depletion of the ozone layer  One of the most successful international agreements  Develops the concept of ‘common but differentiated responsibility’  Bears many resemblances with the Kyoto Protocol

Major UN Conferences  1972: Stockholm Conference  1992: Rio Earth Summit  Agenda 21  Three major conventions: UNFCCC (climate change), UNCBD (biodiversity), UNCCCD (desrtification)  1997: Kyoto Protocol  2002: Johannesburg summit on sustainable development  First failure of international cooperation

Copenhagen 2009: from cooperation to collaboration

Rio +20: The end of the road  The prospects for the Rio +20 conference looked grim already.  The conference was indeed a disaster.  No more appetite for international cooperation.  2012 is the last year when GHG emissions are capped.  No one really knows what will happen on January 1st, 2013.

So why bother?  International cooperation remains necessary because there’s no relationship between  the quantity of GHG that a region or a country emits and the consequence for that area in terms of climate change  the quantity of GHG that we emit today and the changes in the climate our generation will experience  Thus there’s a necessity of:  International cooperation  Long-term cooperation