Global Climate Agenda: Big Gamble

Abstract

The article considers one of the most relevant and, at the same time, the most controversial topics of international politics – tackling climate change (global warming). The author attempts to answer a question: is the global climate agenda a natural priority, or is it being promoted intentionally? On the one hand, global warming is a scientifically acknowledged process, encouraged by industrial emissions of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, etc.), which may be harmful and dangerous for the environment and for humanity. On the other hand, climate change is one of many serious environmental problems that require urgent solution (such as water and soil pollutions, deforestation and desertification, loss of species, plastic waste and other). The question is: for what reason has the global warming been gaining increased attention for the last decades, primarily from Western states which not only proclaimed it their chief political goal, but have also been consequently promoting this agenda in the international arena? The Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN FCCC) adopted in 1992 at the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, with the additional Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and then the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, aimed mainly at the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, undergo a yearly “stock-taking” and promotion at the UN Climate Conferences. The European Union and its leading states (Germany and France) as well as the United States were the first to declare a “green transition” meaning a full decarbonization of their economies by 2050, expecting the rest of the world to follow this path as well. They have already spent billions of dollars for climate aims, including direct assistance to “fragile states”, and are ready to spend much more in the near future. Regular informal meetings at high level (the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Bled Strategic Forum) have also been mostly devoted to the climate agenda in recent years. Analyzing the results of climate-related events of the last decades and especially the last years, the author comes to a conclusion that the global climate agenda in its current form is being promoted intentionally and is a new form of struggle for world economic and political leadership.