Overcoming stalled implementation: a reply to ‘Why do climate change negotiations stall? Scientific evidence and solutions for some structural problems’ by Ulrich J. Frey and Jazmin Burgess
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Key words United Nations climate change negotiations • wicked problem • decision-making • enforcement • trade measuresTo cite this article: Depledge, J. (2023) Overcoming stalled implementation: a reply to 'Why do climate change negotiations stall?Scientific evidence and solutions for some structural problems' by Ulrich J. Frey and Jazmin Burgess, Global Discourse, 13(2): 163-167, DOI: 10.1332/204378922X16481872268424Some 30 years ago, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted.Since then, governments have adopted two more treaties and met annually (except for the 2020 COVID-19 pause) in a Conference of the Parties (COP) to review progress and adopt new rules.Yet, despite these undoubted diplomatic efforts, global emissions continue to rise and damaging climate impacts are accumulating even faster than expected (IPCC, 2022).Why has progress in tackling climate change been so slow?Adding their voices to the many presenting a diagnosis (see, for example, Stoddard et al, 2021), Ulrich Frey and Jazmin Burgess (2022) draw attention to three main contributing factors to what they see as the stalling of negotiations.The first is what has been termed the 'wicked' or 'super wicked' problem structure of climate change (Levin et al, 2012).As a global collective action problem, climate change is prone to the so-called 'tragedy of the commons', for which an effective solution requires coordinated action by all (major) players.This is well known.What receives less attention is that the fundamental organising structures of our modern world -competitive state sovereignty, economic growth as the paramount goal and the short-termism of (democratic) politics -are themselves inimical to an effective response.
Source: Global Discourse
Author: Joanna Depledge
Institution: University of Cambridge
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4226469092