For many years, large, influential businesses and governments have been against the idea of global warming. Many have poured a lot of resources into discrediting what has generally been accepted for a long time as real. Now, the mainstream is generally worried about climate change impacts and the discourse seems to have shifted accordingly. Even some businesses that once engaged in disinformation campaigns have changed their opinions, some even requesting governments for regulation and direction on this issue. However, a few influential companies and organizations are still attempting to undermine climate change action and concerns. Will all this mean a different type of spin and propaganda with attempts at “green washing” and misleading information becoming the norm, or will there now be major shift in attitudes to see concrete solutions being proposed and implemented.
Climate Justice and Equity
A growing concern from developing countries and various NGOs is the need for public participation and the effect on populations and poor countries that global warming negotiations have. The impacts of climate change will be felt on the world’s poorest countries the most. In some cases, climate changes have already affected some small island nations. Climate justice, equity and sustainable development are all important parts of this debate that are often left out of mainstream discourse. Equal rights to the atmosphere for all human beings and equity within and between nations are paramount.
An agreed principle was that of common but different responsibilities.
That is, when the world’s majority countries signed up to climate change Convention (including countries like the US who would later withdraw from the subsequent Kyoto Protocol) it was agreed that it is today’s rich nations who are the ones responsible for global warming as greenhouse gases tend to remain in the atmosphere for many decades, and rich countries have been industrializing and emitting climate changing pollution for many more centuries than the poor countries. It was also agreed that the poor countries had pressing needs to meet basic needs and eradicate poverty. As a result, it was agreed that it would be unfair to put emissions restrictions on poor countries when it is the rich countries who have caused the problems.
Nonetheless, some poor countries have already started to make emission reductions, showing that the rich countries can do it to. Flexibility mechanisms were defined in the Kyoto Protocol as different ways to achieve emissions reduction as part of the effort to address climate change issues. These fall into the following categories: Emissions Trading, Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanism. However, these have been highly controversial as they were mainly included on strong
