High Expectations, Low Results Sample Clauses

High Expectations, Low Results. The assessment of COP24 must necessarily come to a mixed conclusion. On the one hand, the UNFCCC process once more failed to deliver what it set out to deliver, i.e. mobilising action at a scale that is sufficient to prevent dangerous climate change. A strong call for action was missing despite the steady drumbeat of scientific warnings and mounting climate impacts. On the other hand, COP24 delivered a sound technical result with the adoption of the rulebook and thus fulfilled the other half of the expectations. However, it bears noting that the United Nations are a negotiating platform of sovereign states, not a centralized world government. Negotiators always have to refer back to their national capitals before making any concessions on their positions. International conferences can therefore only rarely take decisions that have not previously been prepared nationally. This is true in particular for the climate regime, which is characterized by the constraint to move forward by consensus. Since 0000 Xxxxx Xxxxxx has blocked any attempt to agree on Rules of Procedure that include voting by a three-fourths majority if all efforts at reaching consensus have failed. As we have analyzed previously, the climate regime is thus delivering on two important goals, namely providing significance and legitimation for climate policies. It has severe difficulties, however, to reach agreement on the allocation of scarce resources like the atmosphere.62 Given recent rollbacks in key countries, in particular the US and Brazil, the adoption of robust implementation guidelines for the Paris Agreement is therefore not a small achievement. It sends a signal that the global community is still able to come to a multilateral agreement on the procedural way forward, and that the vast majority of countries still sees climate change as a major concern. It helped, of course, that the US has a genuine interest in sound rules and thus was rather supportive. China, on the other hand, deviated to some extent from its former position that 59 For a critical assessment of the potential and limits of non-state actors see Xxxxxx Xxxx, Xxxx Xxxxx, Harro xxx Xxxxxx, Xxxxxxxx Iacobuta, Xxxxx Xxxxx, Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxx, Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx, et al. ‘Promises and Risks of Nonstate Action in Climate and Sustainability Governance’ (2019) Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, January, e572 60 Lukas Hermwille, ‘Making Initiatives Resonate: How Can Non-State Initiatives Advance National Contributio...