Obstacles to international cooperation

Question 1

Sovereignty

Answer 1

• Nation-states resent outside influence and supranationally imposed carbon-reduction targets and penalties, placing self-interest first.
• 2017 = Trump withdrew the USA from the Paris Treaty (reinstated by Biden) as it would affect their economic growth.
• 2019 = Brazil P. Bolsanaro condemmed President Macron for offering support to help put the rainforest fire out.

Question 2

Responsibility

Answer 2

Nation-states abdicate responsibility as it falls outside their borders - short-term goals always take importance over climate change as the trends are unpredictable.

Question 3

Developed v developing world

Answer 3

• Burden isn’t shared evenly - the developing world argues that the developed world has been polluting since the Industrial Revolution, so they should take greater responsibility.
• However, developing states like the USA withdrew in 2001 and 2017 because of the expectation that the developing world didn’t have to make the same level of commitment - India and China’s coal consumption rose since 2018).
• Transnational companies have opened factories in developing world and undermined responsibilities.
• Based on the world dependency theory, a neo-marxist theory, that it maintains the core vs peripherary.

Question 4

The role of NGOs and Civil society

Answer 4

• Global pressure groups (Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth) regularly lobbies governments and ensure the issue of CC gain global publicity.
• E.G = David Attenborough (spoke at COP22) and Greta Thunberg (named in 100 most influential people by Time).
• 2018 = UN announced 70 cities and 6000 companies were committed.
• Breakthrough Energy Coalition (Gates, Bezos and Branson) offer financial support for start up companies to develop tech to reduce C02 companies.