between ‘the US and virtually all other industrialised states’ 22 . This is significant
due to the US’s position as the unipolar global authority in the early stages
(1990’s-mid 2000’s) of climate cooperation. During UNCED, the US initially opposed ‘quantified targets and timetables’ 23 in relation to carbon emissions
whilst other industrialised nations proposed quantified targets. Since UNCED,
the US’s climate policy has fluctuated with each election, with environmentally
conscious leaders like Obama contrasted with climate deniers like Trump. Such
instability on the issue of carbon emissions in the US has created problems for
the wider global North. This infighting between the leader of the global North
and other countries in the global North has undermined the strength and
cohesion of the North, creating further difficulties in implementing global
climate reforms.
Despite these historical struggles to agree on targets for carbon emissions,
recently there has been more cause for optimism and increasing cases of
successes of international cooperation to reduce carbon emissions. Evidence of
recent successes can be seen with the increasingly important yearly Conference
of the Parties (COP) summits. The agreements made by states at the more recent
COP summits have been much more effective in moving towards the reduction
of global carbon emissions than the initial rounds of COPs. The progress made
over the annual COP summits make COP a good case study to follow the positive
correlations in states’ attitudes and actions towards global climate cooperation.
One recent COP summit, COP 26, showed that climate cooperation is
becoming increasingly palatable for states. During COP 26, all the participating 196 parties 24 signed an agreement intending to ‘phase down coal power’ and
22 Paterson, p.73. 23 Paterson, p.73. 24 UNCC, The Paris Agreement. https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the- parisagreement#:~:text=The%20Paris%20Agreement%20is%20a,compared%20to%20pre%2Dindustrial%20lev els. [accessed 14/11/2022] para. 1 of 15.
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