Student: Frances Swanson
Graduation date: August 2017
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2014
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Summary
The first international collective acknowledgment of climate change was in 1988. The United Nations General Assembly unanimously agreed that climate change posed a serious global threat and therefore established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to systematically address this issue (Helm & Hepburn, 2009). The Kyoto Protocol (the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) and the Copenhagen Accord (2009 UN Climate Change Conference) constitute the other most prominent international endeavors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Copenhagen Accord established an overarching climate goal that increasing global temperature should exceed no more than 2 degrees Celsius. (Balzani & Armaroli, 2010). My evaluation of the effectiveness of a greenhouse gas initiative will be based on its ability to help achieve this temperature goal. Since the creation of the IPCC, the mean level of carbon dioxide surveyed at Mauna Loa increased from 351.56 ppm to 396.48 ppm in 2013 (Tans & Keeling, 2013). The community, state, and international attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have clearly not been able to prevent the rising levels of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere.
I aim to examine the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the international scale, specifically among the members of the group that represents the most economically powerful nations in the world – the G20. Together, these countries make up 85% of the global GDP and emit the largest amounts of greenhouse gasses (Kim & Suh-Yong, 2012). The G20 members include those in the G8 –the original club of industrialized world powers, including the United States, the European Union, Russia, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, and Canada. The group also includes the newly economically prominent nations, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey (Larionova, 2012).
The G20 is one of the most influential clubs in the climate change regime, defined as the informal collection of institutions and initiatives attempting to mitigate global climate change (Keohanem & Victor, 2011). Though the G8 represent the global hegemony, it excludes developing countries, such as India, China, and Brazil, that are experiencing rapid growth in their economies and greenhouse gas emissions. I chose to situate the politics of emission reduction in the G20 because its member countries disproportionately contribute to climate change, making them the most relevant countries to target in studying emission reduction initiatives. They are the world leaders and their actions, and inaction, have a tremendous impact in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change.
I will examine the G20’s response to the demand for greenhouse gas reductions through a political lens. I will study the political relationships and social dynamics between states, as well as the political actions, policies, and strategies taken by the G20. I chose politics to be the foundation of my concentration because I believe that governmental action is essential to reducing our greenhouse gasses at the scale necessary to substantially affect climate change.
Works Consulted
Balzani, Vincenzo, Nicola Armaroli. 2010. Energy for a Sustainable World: From the Oil Age to a Sun-Powered Future. Hoboken: Wiley.
Helm, Dieter, and Cameron Hepburn. 2009. Economics and Politics of Climate Change. Oxford, GBR: Oxford University Press.
Keohanem, Robert O. and David G. Victor (2011). “The Regime Complex for Climate Change.” Perspectives on Politics 9 (1):7-23.
Kim, Joy, and Suh-Yong Chung. 2012. “The role of the G20 in governing the climate change regime.” International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law & Economics 12 (4): 361-374.
Larionova, Marina, ed. 2012. Global Finance: The European Union in the G8: Promoting Consensus and Concerted Actions for Global Public Goods. Abingdon, Oxon, GBR: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
Tans, Pieter, and Ralph Keeling. 2013. “Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide.” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory. http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/.
Questions
- Descriptive: What strategies are G20 nations using to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? What resistance is there to these strategies? What tensions are there between members of the G20?
- Explanatory: Why do some G20 nations prioritize reducing emissions more than others? Why is there resistance to the strategies for reducing emissions?
- Evaluative: How does the effectiveness of G20 greenhouse gas initiatives change in the long, medium, and short terms? How does the effectiveness of greenhouse gas initiatives change when the G20 is taking collective vs. individual action?
- Instrumental: What role can the G20 play in initiating international collective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? How can the G20 effectively reduce global greenhouse gas emissions?
Concentration courses
- IA 340 (International Political Economy, 4 credits), spring 2017. This class examines political and economic relationships in international relations, a key element of my concentration.
- IA 350, (International Law 4 credits), fall 2016. This class will give me insight on international political and legal dynamics that I can apply to my concentration on climate change.
- ENVS 460 (Topics in Environmental Law and Policy), fall 2015. This class will introduce me to environmental law and policy; this will be an important class for me to take given that policy will be a key element of my concentration.
- IA 350 (Social Justice in the Global Economy, 4 credits), spring 2016. This class will give me knowledge on the global economy and help develop my skills on identifying injustices and creating and critiquing potential solutions.
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- HIST 239 (Constructing the American Landscape, 4 credits), fall 2014. This course examines the environment through the history of built landscapes and the social, political, and economic significance of those landscapes.