Climate Diplomacy- Module 9

1.

Module 9 (1)

2. My system diagrams starts with greenhouse gases causing global climate. The need to reduce greenhouse gases leads to the need of the Copenhagen Accord. The United States is a top producer of Greenhouse gases. The United States was extra careful in selecting a plan to reduce greenhouse gases, but as the same time make sure the plan benefits them.  The United States seeks support for the Copenhagen Accord. The WikiLeaks cables revealed how the US manipulated the climate accord, by sending secret cables, spies.   It return the U.S. got a spear phishing attack on the office of the U.S. climate change envoy. This spying across nations lead to the Copenhagen Accord talks failing to lead to a global deal. The deals then continued in Cancun, Mexico. The US started to get as many countries to associate themselves with the accord once again. This lead to smaller countries being promised aid by the richer countries. The smaller countries had very little trust in the large countries to actual provide the aid.  Months later, the US cut aid to the Bolivia and Ecuador. A plan for funding the aid for the changes is need. Overall, 116 countries have associated themselves with the accord. Another 26 say they intend to associate. The plan ultimately fell through since there was a lack of trust between the countries involved. WikiLeaks made the negotiations public, show how The United States were intimidating other countries. The U.S. ethics were deplorable. They lost site of the main reason for the talks, to reduce Greenhouse emits around the globe.

3. The module talked about the collective action on mitigation. In this section I feel that the module hit a key point in why many countries cannot agree on one plan to mitigate climate change. In my opinion, the key point is that there are a difference in values from person to person as well as country to country. In my opinion, the main reason it is so difficult to reach international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emission, because it is very challenging to reduce emission. The module stated many reasons that it is hard to reduce greenhouse has emission. In my opinion, the challenging would be that there are major differences between the positions and views of different countries. The module stated that many smaller countries are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as island countries. The shifts in water and the extreme weather events could wipe out the whole country. These countries are eager to have emissions reduced.  I believe the State Department cables should have been made public from the start. Many people are unaware that this mitigation is currently taking place in the world. This would help people believe that climate change is actually happening. I do not believe the United States should continue conducting their climate change diplomacy in the same fashion.  I believe the United States should be more concerned with trying to get other countries to associate themselves with climate change accord, instead of trying to find a way to benefit from the Climate Change Accord. The United States is one of the top greenhouse gas producers, therefor needs to take a stand to reduce greenhouse emissions. In the module, it stated that many poor countries feel that it is unfair when the rich countries ask them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, when they are not causes the bulk of the emissions. The United States needs to be a leader, and show other countries how to reduce greenhouse emissions without reducing the standard of living.

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