COP21: A Potluck Dinner in Paris

Nations will likely agree to limit greenhouse gas emissions, but governments must ensure enforcement. The climate conference in Paris does not aim for a treaty. Instead leaders “have agreed to hold a huge potluck dinner, in which each country brings what it can,” explains John Cassidy, writing for the New Yorker. The result is a hodgepodge of targets and pledges to reduce emission levels by some percentage from levels reported in varying years. “The decision to forgo a formal treaty was made partly to assuage the concerns of the world’s two biggest polluters, the United States and China,” Cassidy maintains. China has long maintained that countries should control reduction targets, and most Republicans in the United States resist limits. Some analysts worry an agreement with lack of mandates is “too small, too vague, and too late to prevent a dangerous rise in temperatures.” Opponents to immediate reductions in carbon emissions worry about the costs, but costs of weather-related disasters are climbing. The informal approach may work with growing international awareness about the impacts of climate change, and those cheating or ignoring the threat can expect to be ostracized. – YaleGlobal