International Climate Change Policy: Where do we Stand?

Abstract

The article begins with a definition of what is meant by climate change, from the perspective of an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publication. The second section identifies the major legal instruments of international climate change policy adopted before 2012, followed by an analysis of the post-2012 international legal framework in the third section. The next three sections investigate what policy instruments and methods individual countries use to tackle global warming. Two industrialised societies are looked at in detail, namely the European Union, which is a Kyoto Protocol Annex I party, and the United States, the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs), but not a party to the Kyoto Protocol. The investigation then directs its attention to a member of the BASIC group (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) of newly industrialised countries, namely China, as a Kyoto Non-Annex I party and the highest current emitter of GHGs. In the last section, the discussion turns to the developing world, with a special focus on least-developed countries.