Responsibility for a Feasible Climate Ambition

Grace Leung, Betsan Martin, diciembre 2015

This article works with the research paper on pathways to achieve abatement, or reductions in carbon emissions and on national responsibility levels as an approach of equity, as identified in a research paper commissioned by Kennedy Graham, NZ Green Party MP. The significance of this approach is the commitment to climate responsibility, in contrast to the focus on the cost of addressing climate change, which has been the focus of the New Zealand government, and is part of a very weak policy approach to climate.

The paper reviews the developments of the COP conferences and how they have prepared the way for the Paris Agreement, December 2015. With a case study of the research on the feasiblity of abatement and national responsibility, it outlines interdependence and responsibility as organizing themes for climate policy platforms beyond 2015.

telechargement responsibility_for_a_feasible_climate_ambition_bm_gl_21dec15.pdf (150 KiB)

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  • Pierre Calame, Foundation for the Progress of Humankind (FPH) www.fph.ch/?lang=en

  • In preparation for COP21, Professors of Law Alain Supiot and Mireille Delmas-Martyi of the College de France, and Pierre Calame, former Director of the Foundation for the Progress of Humankind, Paris, collaborated for the development of law for climate resonsibility : Twelve Propositions: in French version française and English version anglaise on the site of Collège de France.

  • The Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (2014) : unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/07.pdf

  • COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, world leaders reached the agreement that all major economies must make explicit emissions pledges towards abating climate change : www.c2es.org/international/history-international-negotiations

  • As of late November 2015, 149 countries submitted their INDCs and a synthesis report was published on the projected impact of those INDCs being implemented : unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/07.pdf

  • The New Zealand INDC was framed in terms of an adverse financial and economic scenario : Ministry for Environment Discussion Document New Zealand Government

  • Graham, K. (2015) Climate Goals for New Zealand in 2030. Background research Paper.

  • Paris Agreement, 12 December 2015. UNFCCC/CP/2015/L.9. P.3

  • Graham, Kennedy, MP, Sept 2015, Climate Goals for New Zealand in 2030: An Ambitious Domestic Emissions Target within an Appropriate Share of the Global Budget, Background Research Paper, Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

  • The Climate Equity Reference Framework’s Responsibility and Capacity Index (RCI) : calculator.climateequityreference.org/glossary.php#gloss_rci

  • Generation Zero Aotearoa : www.generationzero.org/our_vision

  • Calame, Pierre, Taking Responsibility Seriously, Foundation for the Progress of Humankind – Collége de France Joint Research Project 2013-15

  • Bosselmann, Mackey & Brown RECIEL 21 (1) 2012. ISSN 0962 8797)

  • New York Times 15th December 2015. P. 6