Climat : papiers de recherche moissonnés – 16 février 2016

The Paris Agreement: Analysis, Assessment and Outlook / Ralph Bodle, Lena Donat and Matthias Duwe. Berlin : Ecologic Institute, 2016, 30 p. http://ecologic.eu/sites/files/event/2016/ecologic_institute_2016_paris_agreement_assessment_0.pdf

The paper presents Ecologic Institute’s comprehensive overview and assessment of the Paris Agreement, including the next steps agreed in the Agreement and accompanying decision, an outlook on implementation and key political messages.

Beyond the targets: assessing the political credibility of pledges for the Paris Agreement / Alina Averchenkova and Samuela Bassi. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment & Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, Feb. 2016, 60 p. http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Averchenkova-and-Bassi-2016.pdf

Countries, including members of the G20, should strengthen the credibility of their pledges to limit or reduce annual emissions of greenhouse gases in order to build confidence in the Paris Agreement on climate change… The report provides the results of an analysis of “intended nationally determined contributions”, or INDCs, that were submitted by more than 180 countries ahead of the Paris climate change summit in December 2015, focusing on the credibility, rather than the ambition, of pledges about future emissions.

La participation des populations aux décisions environnementales : dossier, Responsabilité et environnement, n° 81, 2016 https://www.cairn.info/revue-responsabilite-et-environnement-2016-1.htm

Introduction par Philippe Ledenvic : La participation du public aux décisions environnementales est avant tout affaire de démocratie : comment faire en sorte que les besoins de la société soient traduits en projets « d’utilité publique » ? Comment faire en sorte que les projets proposés répondent aux objectifs recherchés et soient optimisés sur le plan environnemental ? Les objets sont techniques, la décision est politique : comment éviter un dialogue de sourds entre l’ingénieur, le décideur et un public diversifié, de mieux en mieux informé ? Ce numéro fournit plusieurs clés pour comprendre cette problématique, à la fin d’une année 2015 au cours de laquelle de nombreux groupes de travail ont essayé d’y apporter des réponses, mais aussi de remettre en ordre et, si possible, de simplifier des processus qui n’ont cessé d’être raffinés et sophistiqués au cours des trente dernières années…

The Two Sides of the Paris Climate Agreement: Dismal Failure or Historic Breakthrough? / Raymond Clémençon. Journal of Environment & Development, 2016, Vol. 25(1), pp. 3-24 http://jed.sagepub.com/content/25/1/3.full.pdf+html

 The article assesses the Paris Climate Agreement before in its historic context. The agreement has officially abandoned the idea of an international equitable burden-sharing arrangement to control and reduce carbon emissions based on multilaterally negotiated binding emissions targets and time tables for each country, and thereby effectively sidelined equity and environmental justice considerations as a guiding principle for multilateral cooperation. But by adopting some global objectives that all countries can subscribe to built around voluntary country pledges it has provided some hope that the world will be able to start transitioning towards a carbon free future.

Sustainable Development, Climate Politics and EU-Leadership: A Historical Comparative Analysis / Raymond Clémençon. European Journal of Sustainable Development, 2016, vol 5, n°1, pp. 125-144 http://ojs.ecsdev.org/index.php/ejsd/article/view/310/pdf_4

The pressure on EU countries to abandon a leadership role on sustainable development and climate change politics is growing. However, no other source of global leadership is emerging that could fill the gap. The present analysis examines the relative role of four political drivers that influence policy and governance responses to global environmental issues. The conclusion is that over  the last two decades, international negotiations, civil society activism, and private sector initiatives on their own have not been decisive factors shaping outcomes while political opportunity structures  in key countries explain broad policy trajectories that favor or undermine sustainable development policies. EU countries where Green Parties at times have been able to critically shape policy direction are the only actors that have developed the long term socio-political and economic foundation for a coherent approach to sustainable       development. Such a structural foundation on       the other hand       is missing in the United States and in key emerging economies. This means the EU must continue to lead because without it there will be no coherent political leadership on global environmental issues for years to come.

Danièle Revel

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