The Climate Change Convention and Developing Countries: From Conflict to Consensus?

Front Cover
Springer Science & Business Media, 1997 M04 30 - 249 pages
The climate change problem can only be effectively dealt with if global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be reduced substantially. Since the emission of such gases is closely related to the economic growth of countries, a critical problem to be addressed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) is: how will the permissible emission levels be shared between industrialised (ICs) and developing countries (DCs)? The thesis of this book is that the long-term effectiveness of the FCCC runs the risk of a horizontal negotiation deadlock between countries and the risk of vertical standstill within countries if there is little domestic support for the domestic implementation of measures being announced in international negotiations. The research question is: Can one observe trends towards horizontal deadlock and vertical standstill and if yes, how can the treaty design be improved so as to avoid such potential future bottlenecks? The research focuses on the perspectives of domestic actors on the climate convention and related issues in four developing countries: India, Indonesia, Kenya and Brazil. The following key findings emerge from the research: 1. Handicapped negotiating power: The common theme of the foreign policy of DCs is that ICs are responsible for the bulk of the GHG emissions and need to take appropriate domestic action.

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Contents

The climate change issue
1
12 The climate change problem
3
The glass is halffull
9
14 The research problem
17
15 Summary
20
A theoretical framework
21
23 An integrated framework for analysis
35
24 Methodological issues
42
64 Trends and future of JI
130
65 Summary
131
Policy options and related nondecisions
132
72 Analyzing the nondecisions
134
73 Trends and future implications
148
74 Summary
149
8 The politics of climate science
150
83 The costs of climate change
158

25 Summary
45
The domestic context Opportunities and risks
46
33 Climate change is not a priority domestic issue
52
34 Climate policy
58
35 Trends
71
36 Summary
73
Foreign policy Between solidarity and fighting inequity
74
The illusory carrot
88
Elusive coalitions
93
45 Trends
96
46 Summary
98
The case of power politics
99
52 Behind the consensus
101
53 Induced convergence of interests
111
54 Trends and the future of the GEFFCCC
114
55 Summary
115
Joint Implementation Between hope and angst
116
62 Behind the consensus
120
63 Induced convergence of interests
125
Structural imbalance in knowledge generation
161
85 Summary
165
The science of climate politics
166
93 Towards the politics of compromise
172
94 Summary
178
Towards enhanced cooperation
179
103 Vertical bottlenecks
188
104 Towards conclusions and recommendations
190
105 Recommendations in the context of the regime lifecycle
200
106 A final word
205
References
206
List of treaties and other international legal instruments
223
Table of cases UN and other international documents
224
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
225
List of questions for the interviews
242
Matrix of interviewees
244
Index
246
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