The core ideas behind my design is that many of the countries around the world recognize that there is a need for climate change. The problem is that many of the countries around the world are looking for a plan that is best for themselves. This is shown by the United States. The United States opposes the Kyoto protocol because in this protocol the richer countries have binding obligations. This leads the United States to push for the Copenhagen Accord. This accord is more favorable to the United States and some of the richer countries, but hurts many of the poorer countries that are using cheaper fossil fuels for development. This opposition leads to the accord offering some financial aid to some of the poorer countries that would be hit by this accord. The accord promised $30bn in aid to the poorer countries. This led to the Maldives Prime Minister to quickly back the Copenhagen Accord. The U.S. also threatened to cut off discussions with some countries such as Zenawi if they did not sign the accord. The more powerful countries also had several problems in determining how the cuts in emissions would be policed. All of these issues led to a lack of trust between many of the countries that were interested in implementing this accord. This lack of trust then led to many people believing that the Copenhagen Accord was an overall failure. The overall reason for the failure was the lack of trust, and the selfishness of different countries not willing to give up too much to achieve real climate change policies.
I believe the two major concepts that we have covered that apply to the climate change situation are ethics, and the idea of collective action. I think ethics is a major topic in climate change because climate change deals with a lot of what is right and wrong. Most people believe that implementing climate change policies is the right thing to do. However, most countries are selfish and continue to use cheaper fossil fuels to continue to develop countries. This selfishness pushes other countries to act selfishly to remain competitive with other countries. This goes into the ethics topic of altruism vs. selfishness. If all of the countries act in an all altruistic manner then it may be possible to make a dent on climate change. This idea of acting altruistically is very close to the idea of collective action. The entire world needs to work together on these issues to make real changes in the world. I believe the more developed nations need to make the biggest first steps to lead the way for smaller countries. It is for these reasons that I believe the State Department cables should be made public, so everyone can remain informed as to what is going on. I also think that this shows the United States should not be conducting climate change diplomacy in the way that they have been. I think the United States have been too selfish in their diplomacy, and if we want to see real change in the world we need to lead by example and make heavy cuts on our own emissions. The United States needs to make these cuts and then urge other countries to follow in an effort to cut back on the effect that humans have had over the years on the Earth’s climate change.
Hi William,
After reading your article, I found what you said on your systems diagram as very different. You chose to focus much more on the climate aspect of the accord, while i focused on the events leading to the agreement by other countries on the accord. I think both ways work well. I also agree with how you feel that the larger nations should take the first step towards changing the climate rather than smaller nations. I talked about how the powerful countries should set a example for the smaller ones, through energy efficient cities and less-wasteful food systems in my blog post.
You can read what I said in my blog post below.
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/05/module-9-the-copenhagen-accord/
Hey William! My name is Kayla and here is the link to my own blog post if you wanted to take a look: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/04/module-9-learning-assignment/
After reading through your post I can see that we hold some of the same views on the issues of climate change and the State Department cables. I also believe the cables should have been made public and that the U.S. could have acted differently. I like that you said the U.S. needs to take initiative in cutting its own emissions. I said that the U.S. should have worked on explaining and negotiating with other countries instead of bribing and threatening them. I also talked about the U.S. needing to be more sympathetic to each countries individual needs. Overall, I really liked reading your post as your ideas were very insightful.