This is an essay piece which is defending the merits of the Paris Agreement over the prior Kyoto Protocol. There is an examination of the geopolitical politics that concern the Agreement and how ensuring that countries remain within the Agreement is essential to fighting climate change. The effects of climate change which differ according to geography, time, and history are examined. As such, it is argued that wealthier, Western nations need to lead the fight on climate change and particularly, need to aid developing countries in creating greener infrastructure. Also what needs to be taken into account is how climate change will affect those of a lower socioeconomic background who cannot afford to leave or migrate due to climate disaster.
The Paris Agreement: An Opinion Piece
The Paris Agreement ratified on December 12th, 2015 will succeed in all the areas that the Kyoto Protocol failed to retain any achievement. This paper argues that it will succeed due to the implementation of combining traits from both multilateral and multinational climate governance within the structure of a bottom-up approach. This stands in stark contrast to the previous top-down methods employed by the Kyoto Protocol that enforced mandatory emission cuts on specific countries – those who would accept them - according to their status. However, the Paris Agreement employs a bottom-up approach that allows countries to set their own emission reduction standards according to what they can contribute (Falkner, 2016: 23). This overall encourages more countries to participate in the climate agreement as there would be no enforced mandatory cuts like before. Additionally, the Agreement paves the path for more sustainable and adaptable mechanisms of climate change development. Specifically, this approach creates more enthusiasm for addressing the issue of climate change as no major emitter will want to be left behind due to its of maintenance of a realm of peer pressure through various methods (Falkner, 2016: 24). The transnational portion makes it such that the Paris Agreement will facilitate better and more progressive negotiations to take place between nation-states. Lastly, the multilateral portion employed within the Agreement makes it possible for NGOs and other non-state actors to play a part in the process of climate governance as well (Hoffmann, 2013: 26). All these combined effects have resulted in the Paris Agreement being a great improvement upon the previous Kyoto Protocol and I believe will succeed Kyoto’s failures.
[...]
- Quote paper
- Kanade Tachibana (Author), 2017, Defence of the merits of the Paris Agreement over the prior Kyoto Protocol, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1172185
-
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X.