President Donal Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement, and stated that the withdrawal was mainly to protect its national interests. The U.S. economic ambitions, the China factor and the intricacies of U.S domestic politics had played a major role in deciding the U.S. position on the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. There are some who are sceptical on whether the Paris Agreement would successfully achieve its expected outcomes in the absence of U.S. participation. The objective of this study is to examine the factors that have discouraged the U.S. to partake in the international climate change agreements. An analytical framework was employed for this study that examines the insights and conceptions from the textual data, based on realism. The study concludes that the U.S. outlook on climate change had more or less adhered to the realist stance, even though realism is considered a theoretical approach with significant drawbacks, particularly when dealing with issues of climate change. Nonetheless, this study also asserts that there is a need for deeper engagement between the U.S. and the participants of the Paris Agreement to effectively tackle the issues of climate change at this moment.

President Donal Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement, and stated that the withdrawal was mainly to protect its national interests. The U.S. economic ambitions, the China factor and the intricacies of U.S domestic politics had played a major role in deciding the U.S. position on the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. There are some who are sceptical on whether the Paris Agreement would successfully achieve its expected outcomes in the absence of U.S. participation. The objective of this study is to examine the factors that have discouraged the U.S. to partake in the international climate change agreements. An analytical framework was employed for this study that examines the insights and conceptions from the textual data, based on realism. The study concludes that the U.S. outlook on climate change had more or less adhered to the realist stance, even though realism is considered a theoretical approach with significant drawbacks, particularly when dealing with issues of climate change. Nonetheless, this study also asserts that there is a need for deeper engagement between the U.S. and the participants of the Paris Agreement to effectively tackle the issues of climate change at this moment.

COVID-19 followed lockdown in countries have significantly reduced the level of global carbon emissions. However, this reduction in emissions is evaluated as a temporary phenomenon as emissions from countries are expecting to grow rapidly once the pandemic imposed restrictions are fully withdrawn. If emissions from countries are growing unabatedly in a post pandemic world that would adversely impact the implementation of the international climate change agreements, particularly the Paris Climate Agreement. Paris Climate Change Agreement which came into form in 2015 is the only international climate change agreement existing today to regulate global carbon emissions from all major economies. Majority of the nation-states have ratified the Paris Climate Agreement. However, the climate leadership vacuum that has created with the decision of the US to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and the current challenges that COVID-19 is posing to world multilateral order are adversely influencing the course of global climate change negotiations and thereby worsening the climate crisis.

The present paper attempts to assess the spatial pattern of fish consumption and its attributes in Kerala. The study was conducted across different district locales in Kerala viz., urban coastal (Trivandrum), rural coastal (Alappuzha), noncoastal urban (Kottayam) and noncoastal rural (Palakkad) districts. A total of 1440 consumption households were covered for the study. The consumer profiles revealed that 57% of respondents were of middle age group (35-55 years) with collegiate education (27%). More than 40% consume fish on a daily basis. The result revealed that the fish consumption increased over the years on account of better fish availability (62%) accessibility (52%) and affordability (48%). The fish accessibility was less than one km as opined by 52% of consumers. The consumption attributes indicated that sardine was the most preferred species of fish followed by mackerel and anchovies. The constraints in fish consumption as perceived by the consumers induced that from lack of fresh fish, to high price, wide fluctuations in price, irregular supply and lack of hygiene in purchase sources were limiting factors in augmenting fish consumption. Different statistical and econometric tools such as conjoint analysis, preference assessment index and discriminant analysis have been deployed for analyzing the data.