acknowledge historic and lifestyle-related emissions whilst developing nations
refused to limit emissions in fear of affecting their economic development. This
wilful ignorance by developing and developed nation-states was mutually
beneficial until the effects of climate change began to manifest in the 1980s.
Extreme weather events such as hurricane Gilbert in 1988 left ‘a fifth of the people of Jamaica homeless’ 5 or record-breaking temperature recordings like the 53°C recorded in Death Valley in the United States 6 (US) in the same year
sensitised the publics of industrialised nations to environmental issues. The
enlightenment of the public as a result of the real-world consequences of climate
change was a contributing factor in encouraging nations to initiate discourse on
how to collectively solve the issue.
The years following UNCED saw the beginning of genuine negotiations
over limiting carbon emissions. During these initial years, nation states faced
many obstacles to international cooperation. The initial obstacle was the debate
over responsibility. States used the idea of responsibility to avoid having to invest
as much into solving the climate crisis. One example of this was China’s defence
of its carbon emissions. China has been the world’s largest annual CO2 emitter since 2006, producing 11.47 billion tonnes a year 7 . However, they argued against international pressure to reduce emissions 8 by highlighting emission data in which the US has historically produced the most CO2 with 416.9 billion tonnes emitted cumulatively 9 , nearly double that of China. In shifting the responsibility 5 Paterson, p.32. 6 Paterson, p.32. 7 Our World In Data, Annual CO₂ emissions (2022), https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/co2?facet=none&country=CHN~USA~IND~GBR~OWID_WRL&Gas=CO%E 2%82%82&Accounting=Production- based&Fuel+or+Land+Use+Change=All+fossil+emissions&Count=Per+country [accessed 11/11/2022) 8 Hongyuan, Yu. Global Warming and China's Environmental Diplomacy , (New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2008), p.89. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/swansea-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3019945 [accessed 11/11/2022] 9 Our World in Data (OWD), Cumulative CO₂ emissions (2022), https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/co2?facet=none&country=CHN~USA~IND~GBR~OWID_WRL&Gas=CO%E
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