Great Expectations: Understanding Why the UN Climate Talks Seem to Fail

Image of the Earth, courtesy UN Climate Change/flickr

Expectations and actual outcome of the UN climate regime

This paper provides an analysis of the gulf between great expectations and actual outcomes in the context of the UN climate regime. The authors contend that the expectation that the UN meetings could reverse global climate change is based on faulty premises and is damaging. The unfair expectations paint international agreements as perpetual failures, providing ammunition for the interests that oppose any form of international environmental regulation. The authors contend that if its role is properly understood, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) can play an important role in responding to climate change.

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