Paris Climate Accord: Miles to Go

Abstract

The vicious effects of climate change are sweeping the planet along with the creation of a level of emissions that would lock in a future of rising sea levels, intense droughts and food shortages, more destructive storms and floods and other catastrophic effects. With a best hope to face the bad effects of climate change on world security and to drive the world on a low-carbon pathway, a multinational effort of the world leaders is on the process to hammer out a new global pact for reducing the emissions. But the Paris Climate Summit has not served for this purpose because of absence of actionable commitments, discord on sharing of remaining carbon space, disagreement over finance, lack of clarity and sidelining the least developed and vulnerable countries. Delivery on commitments made in Paris, therefore, calls for new systems of governance, new infrastructures, user practices, institutions, policies and cultural meanings.

Social Work Interventions: A Socio-Ecological Analysis of Climate Change and Conflict Refugees in the Sahel

“…Mahaprata and Ratha identify multiple factors that made it difficult for the promises made by states at the Summit to truly be carried out (2016). They note that due to a lack of actionable commitments, disagreement on carbon levels and finance, lack of clarity, and the sidelining of the least developed and most vulnerable countries, the Summit did not result in much actionable change (Mahapatra & Ratha, 2016). The authors suggest that by implementing new systems of governance and infrastructures, in changing practices, institutions, policies, and cultural meanings, this accountability could be reached (Mahapatra & Ratha, 2016).…”

“…They note that due to a lack of actionable commitments, disagreement on carbon levels and finance, lack of clarity, and the sidelining of the least developed and most vulnerable countries, the Summit did not result in much actionable change (Mahapatra & Ratha, 2016). The authors suggest that by implementing new systems of governance and infrastructures, in changing practices, institutions, policies, and cultural meanings, this accountability could be reached (Mahapatra & Ratha, 2016). Therefore, if an intervention at this level were to be effectively implemented to set the stage for future paradigm shifts and attitude changes it would be necessary for it to consider changing policies to ensure accountability, in turn ideally leading to changing practices within our institutions.…”

Global Climate Change Mitigation: Strategic Incentives

“…Current evidence suggests that these have not been effective in mobilizing all countries to reduce emissions. 1 This ineffectiveness can be explained, first, by disagreement over the scale of mitigation costs and who should bear them (Mahapatra & Ratha 2017), reflecting the inevitable trade-off between effective mitigation and growth performance. Second, voluntary agreement in the presence of a "tragedy of the commons" is problematic (Clarke & Waschik 2012).…”

Proactive, Reactive, and Inactive Pathways for Scientists in a Changing World

“…The World Economic Forum listed extreme weather events, natural disasters, and failure of climate change adaptation and mitigation in the top five risks, both in terms of impact and likelihood, in the 2018 Global Risk Landscape (http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2018/global-risks-landscape-2018/#landscape, accessed 12 February 2018). The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement was ratified by 195 countries in 2015, but does not explicitly outline actionable commitments for reducing carbon emissions (Mahapatra & Ratha, ). Without strong action, remaining 2 °C below preindustrial temperatures by 2100 seems unlikely (Clémençon, ), meaning that significant change to natural and food production systems is unavoidable (Cheung et al, ; Guiot & Cramer, ).…”