Climate Change

Overview

• arguably the most pressing issue, environmental or otherwise, facing today’s world

  • specifically pertinent to international politics as all countries will be disadvantaged by it (to varying degrees) and most countries contribute to it (also to various degrees)

• caused by the greenhouse effect, specifically through increased carbon dioxide emissions

mitigation tactics

• mitigation policy: a policy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and enhances carbon sinks

  • carbon sink: a natural element or environment that absorbs more carbon than it releases

• many diplomatic and technological solutions posed

  • geoengineering: a field of engineering which involves large-scale manipulations of physical, chemical, or biological systems to reduce levels of atmospheric gas

adapting to climate change

• as climate change does and is projected to continue affecting the natural environment and human inhabitants of it regardless of what is done, adaptive measures must be taken in addition to responsive and preventative measures

• adaptation: shifting resources into preparing for and remediating the effects of climate change

The Kyoto Protocol (1997)

• Laid a lot of the current framework for international cooperation in progressive environmental policy

• Was intended to set countries’ commitments to the environment in motion through mandating their commitments to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions

• Draws on many ideas from the UN Framework on Climate Change (established in 1994) and attempts to mobilize efforts catalyzed with that policy

The Paris Agreement (2016)

• Facilitated by the United Nations as a legally binding policy for all signatories aiming to decrease global greenhouse gas emissions through mutual financial and technological support and aggressive environmentally friendly strategies

  • This is accomplished in large part through the research and development of  “zero-carbon” alternatives to common pollutants, such as electric cars as an alternative to petroleum-powered vehicles

The Refugee Crisis

• Refugee: a person who is forced out of their country for valid fear of/under threat of violence or persecution “for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside of the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country”

• Non-refoulement policies cover the rights of refugees against forced deportation

• An internally displaced person is someone who could be categorized as a refugee, but did not leave their home country (rather, they were forced to move to another location within it)

  • These definitions have developed and broadened over time as refugee originally meant an individual person who was specifically targeted by a government or other entity that posed an immediate, direct danger to them

  • However, because of certain larger groups being targeted through civil wars and ethnic conflicts, the term was broadened to reflect that

  • The idea of internally displaced people also developed as a means of calculating displacement as a whole, not just outside of a given country