The Paris Agreement has the potential to facilitate ambitious climate action: a reply to ‘Why do climate change negotiations stall? Scientific evidence and solutions for some structural problems’ by Ulrich J. Frey and Jazmin Burgess

Abstract

Frey and Burgess (2022) argue that climate change negotiations have stalled because of the global public goods nature of the problem, the consensus decision-making process and the lack of institutions to enforce sanctions. I will argue that this is not the most precise, nor the most fruitful, way to frame the political challenge of limiting climate change, for two reasons. First, the authors of the Paris Agreement were mindful of the limitations of a global accord negotiated under a consensus rule. They created a flexible umbrella for national – and non-governmental – action that can allow climate ambitions to ramp up over time. Second, whereas climate change is a global problem, important elements of it can potentially be solved through climate clubs, where many of the issues that plague global negotiations do not apply.