THE KEY TO THE PARIS AGREEMENT
But what do we mean when we say "This is the key"? What makes what the key to whatever?
Now that there is a Global Climate Change Agreement, what follows must be the Act. Let me then refer to the agreement by an acronym, Global Cat, meaning Global Climate Agreement Terms. This is a serious matter; this is now or never. The metaphor of the cat is intentional – a cat pounces on pests such as mice. All the country signatories to the Global Cat are mice, including those who did not sign. Careful now, the Global Cat is watching! Now then, the Global Cat should be able to pounce on any of the countries that turn out to be mice just scampering around looking for food, or victim.
Is the Global Cat as powerful as it should be? It's not an international government, just an international agreement, so where will that global power come from? What is the key to the Global Cat? Here, I have selected some pronouncements on the matter:
Forest Europe: "Forests to play key role in new global climate change agreement" (foresteurope.org).
KWTX: "In the "Paris agreement," countries would commit to keeping average global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and 2100, a key demand of poor countries ravaged by rising sea levels and other effects of climate change. Still, the pact doesn't have any mechanism to punish countries that don't or can't contribute toward that goal" – (kwtx.com).
Ban Ki-moon: “I challenge you to bring to the Summit bold pledges. Innovate, scale up, co-operate and deliver concrete action that will close the emissions gap and put us on track for an ambitious legal agreement.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Oxford Martin School, oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk).
Haydn Watters: "5 key points in Paris Agreement on climate change" (CBC News, cbc.ca). He enumerates: (1) Limit temperature rise "well below" 2 C. (2) First universal climate agreement. (3) Helping poorer nations. (4) Publishing greenhouse gas reduction targets. (5) Carbon neutral by 2050?
Coral Davenport: "Key to success of climate pact will be its signals to global markets" (The New York Times, nytimes.com).
Justin Worland: "What to know about the historic 'Paris Agreement' on climate change" – (TIME, time.com). He gives answers to "five key questions." These are: "What does the Paris Agreement do? Is the agreement binding? How did the negotiations work? Who were the key players in getting a deal? So everyone's happy?
ICOS: "The latest version, published at 9pm on Thursday, 10th December, includes the following key aspects" – Eamonn Farrell (icos.ie). He enumerates 5: level of ambition, 5-year review clause, food security, and climate finance.
Eunice Kilonzo: "The key contentious issues are the financing mechanisms in place for poorer countries to handle climate change, how countries' carbon emissions are tracked as well as transparency" – (Daily Nation, nation.co.ke).
Australia: In "Global action and Australia's role," we read that "The two largest emitters of greenhouse gases – China and the United States – are both stepping up their actions to reduce emissions and these measures could have a significant impact on global emissions" – Australian Government Climate Change Authority (climatechangeauthority.gov.au). It also says, "In the international context, the Authority has also considered how Australian action compares to that of other key countries and its ability to positively or negatively influence action."
Key, what is key?
So now, let us consider the various "key" pronouncements on our Global Cat:
Sorry, Forest Europe, "Forests to play key role" is not key to the agreement; forests are a component of the agreement. Remember, a key is that one that opens a door. If it is the Global Cat key, it will open a thousand doors.
KWTX, keeping global temperatures from rising another degree as "a key demand of poor countries" does not make it the key to Global Cat.
Wei Kuo-yen, mere inclusivity will not make the Global Cat work. It just makes the work more difficult.
Mr UN Secretary, is concrete action the key to make the Global Cat act boldly? That depends on the action, so that is not the key.
Haydn Watters, your 5 key points are 4 too many. Same with Justin Worland's 5 key questions. And same with ICOS's 5 key aspects of Global Cat. Eunice Kilonzo's 3 contentious issues are 2 too many.
Australia, yes, global action is where to find the key we're looking for, but it has something to do not just with the action of one country positively or negatively influencing action on another. Think bigger!
In fact, Ban Ki-moon mentioned it in passing in the quote above: "Innovate, scale up, co-operate and deliver concrete action." In fact, he mentioned it 7 years earlier during the International Day of Cooperatives, saying "I strongly encourage Governments to carry out measures and regulations that will be supportive of partnerships with cooperative enterprises" (05 July 2008, UN News Centre, un.org).
The key to making the Global Cat come alive is enterprises:
Make climate change a global business!
And the key to making the Global Cat a global business is cooperativism.
Globally: Treat Global Cat as one international cooperative, so there must be a Board of Directors, a General Manager, and some committees like Education & Training, Audit, Election, Mediation & Conciliation, and Ethics. Global Cat must be governed like a cooperative because a cooperative is truly democratic in practice, and all over the world everyone knows how it works. If you have doubts, visit Cuba.
Nationally: Global Cat promotes State-Science-Public-Private-Church-Citizens–Professionals-Peasants Partnerships in environmentally conscious cooperative projects within each country. Such projects are reduce-reuse-recycle ones that include but are not limited to green education in schools, reforestation, greening of the cities, collective green farms, town composting projects and energy conservation, all with incentives.
Global Cat projects in poor countries will not wait for the rich countries to donate funds – climate change is not a waiting game.
The Paris Agreement is just that, an agreement – it will not and cannot implement itself. Robinson Meyer says there's hope if we look at the Agreement as renewed investment (12 December 2015, theatlantic.com):
The Paris agreement is meant to spur that great re-investment, by signaling the imminent end of the fossil-fuel business and the fantastic opportunity in renewable energy. It hopes to address the boardrooms of the world and say: Keep it up.
But I say no, not renewable energy only and no, not big business only. Spurred by cooperative enterprises, the Global Cat will implement the agreement, as described above. All this has something to do with appropriate business transactions. And when it works, internationally, we will find that we have a slightly different meaning to the acronym Global Cat:
Global Climate Appropriate Trade.
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