Kaihla Mae M.

Rillon
BS ENTREP 2-2

CONTROLLING CLIMATE CHANGE: THE BIGGEST ISSUE FACING NATIONS

AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

About sixty years ago scientists began to draw attention to the fact that climate change was
beginning to take place. Over the next fifty years, the data became clearer and the arguments
began to be put forward increasingly strongly that global climate change was taking place, and
that actions must be taken to prevent global deterioration which will result from climate change,
if it is allowed to proceed without any controls. It gradually became clear that nations, operating
on their own, could not deal effectively with the problems associated with climate change. It
also became clear that large countries on their own could not find solutions to climate change,
nor could groupings such as the Asian countries and the European Union, which jointly account
for over 1,000 million of the world’s population. In a similar way, international organizations set
up to achieve specific goals, with extremely wealthy and powerful sponsors, such as OPEC (the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) have proved to be unable to contribute anything
meaningful to the debate on the need to control climate change.
I will explore the steps which have been taken to define the climate change problem, and to
develop plans to minimize climate change, showing that new forms of international
collaboration have been devised, as well as commenting on the length of time involved, and the
difficulties in gaining international cooperation. The I.P.C.C. (the International Panel on Climate
Change) was created by the World Meteorological Organization and by the U.N. (United
Nations) Environmental Program. It is the leading body in carrying out international research on
climate change. The UN Environmental Program, with its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, set
up in 2014 the G.C.F. (Global Climate Fund). This Fund provides finance for investment which
will mitigate the effects of climate change. This Fund has other purposes, in providing finance to
help overcome natural disasters and to support ecosystem management.
Because of the limitations of expecting countries, even large countries such as the United States
of America, China and India, to take meaningful steps on their own to control climate change,
new international developments had to take place, since it was obvious that nations and existing
groups such as the European Union and the Asian nations felt that combating climate change
was too big an issue for them to handle. A historic, global climate agreement, called the Paris
Agreement, was signed in 2015 by 197 countries. The Paris Agreement is a legally-binding
international treaty on climate change. The need for the Paris Agreement highlights the fact that
when a major new issue emerges, such as global climate change, existing international
organizations are shown to be limited in their ability to address the new issue.
The Paris Agreement is exceptional in the large number of countries, 197 in total, which have
signed up to it. The Paris Agreement became effective in November 2016. A substantial period
of time, more than fifty years, elapsed from the time when scientists started to warn about the
dangers to the planet likely to be caused by climate change, and, in particular, by global
warming, before significant international action took place. About four years before the signing
of the Paris Agreement, Barak Obama, then President of the USA said: “Climate change is no
longer something that is a far off problem; it is happening here; it is happening now”.
The goal agreed by the countries which signed the Paris Agreement, is to limit global warming,
and to keep climate change below 2 degrees Celsius, and, if possible, below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Each of the countries which signed the Paris Agreement is expected to prepare its action plan for
combating climate change and for controlling and reducing the emission of greenhouse and CO2
gases. These action plans are called N.D.C.s (Nationally Determined Contributions) and are
expected to be submitted every 5 years. They will indicate the contributions which each country
will make towards the achievement of the goal of the Paris Agreement.
Although climate change is a scientific issue, and the direct results are on the physical
environment, such as leading to increased rainfall in some areas, to changes in sea levels and to
the melting of ice in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, the indirect results have much wider
impacts on economics, politics, culture and standards of living. There are economic costs
involved in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, and in motivating individuals and
companies to change their behaviour, to bring about reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Changes in travel, especially involving air travel, are also required to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. People in all countries, rich and poor, may be encouraged to use different modes of
transport, such as making greater use of bicycles instead of cars. Political decisions can involve
choices in investing in renewable energy sources in place of fossil fuels. The culture and ways
of life of people in many countries will be affected by the changes mentioned above, and these
changes will have impacts on the income levels and on standards of living of people.
A major political problem took place about four years ago when Donald Trump, soon after being
elected President of the USA, decided to withdraw the USA from the Paris Agreement. Since
the USA was the single biggest member country of the Agreement, this was a major blow to the
Paris Agreement, and to the achievement of its goals. In November 2020, shortly after taking
office as the new American President, Joe Biden reversed the decision of Donald Trump, and re-
instated the USA as a member of the Paris Agreement. This decision was welcomed by the
world-wide community, especially by countries and regions which take the problems of climate
change seriously, and are committed to seeing the goals of the Paris Agreement achieved. This
problem of Donald Trump highlights the difficulties which can affect an international agreement
like the Paris Agreement, if one or more of the individual countries, through the decisions of
their leaders, decide they are no longer willing to commit to the goals of the Paris Agreement.
There could be many reasons for withdrawing – economic, political, technological or cultural. In
the case of Donald Trump, neither he nor his close advisers, really believed that climate change
was taking place!
I selected climate change as the subject because it highlights a global issue, which cannot be
solved by regions, by countries or even by existing groups of countries such as the Asian
countries or by the countries of the European Union. When a new global issue like climate
change emerges, it indicates the difficulties of existing international groupings of countries to
deal adequately with the problems, and to develop realistic solutions. In the case of climate
change, I have shown that it took a considerable period of time after the problem was first
recognized before international action took place. It also required a new type of international
action and international cooperation to address the problems of climate change, to agree goals,
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and to develop a framework requesting each of the 197 signatory countries to develop action
plans, indicating how each country will contribute to the achievement of the goals set by the
Paris Agreement. There are other problems associated with the Paris Agreement which have not
been discussed
For example, the problems of China and India, as two of the largest producers of emissions
from greenhouse gases. The problems of controlling the behaviour of these large countries, and
whether they will cooperate in the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement remain
unclear. I have tried to show, by writing about climate change, that there is a continuing need for
strong international cooperation to obtain meaningful results. This may require, from time to
time, the development of new international organizations or international forms of collaboration,
as in the case of the Paris Agreement.