Global climate failure

At COP 30 this November, the primary goal must be to increase pressure on developed countries to move faster and more credibly on climate mitigation

- NITIN DESAI

In November this year, the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will take place in Belem, in the Amazonian part of Brazil.

The UN Climate Convention is crucial because the mitigation of climate change risks cannot be done sufficiently by any country on its own. The accumulation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is inherently global in its impact and requires global cooperation for mitigation.

As originally conceived, the UNFCCC placed the primary responsibility for climate mitigation action on developed countries (more formally Annex 1 countries in UNFCCC). This has changed. The developed countries have moved against the idea of "common but differentiated responsibilities" that is explicitly a part of the UNFCCC (Article 3 Part 1). They have also moved away from negotiated formal commitments and now argue for voluntary national commitments for all countries, whether developed or developing. That is what is reflected in the agreement at the 2015 meeting of the COP in Paris.

This has placed developing countries, particularly China and India, at the centre of global action on climate mitigation.

China, India, and other developing countries have accepted responsibilities for actions not envisaged in the original UNFCCC and are already working to make their growth objectives less dependent on fossil fuels. The developed countries have moved in the opposite direction and diluted their commitment that is implicit in their historical responsibility for carbon accumulation in the atmosphere, which is the main cause of climate change.