Great post! I spent a part of my childhood in Fiji Islands and it's rare to see island nations get such high profile speaking opportunities at any other international forum. It would be a shame to lose it all together.
Dropping in a great clarifying point from a reader: While Trump is planning to pull out of the Paris Agreement (like he did last time), the US will remain a party to the UNFCCC. A big focus of UNFCCC and COP process is on the Paris Agreement, though UNFCCC member countries have other obligations laid out in the foundational treaty.
Thank you for penning a response this this. My question is always what are the critics of COP and the “Western climate cabal”, actually proposing? The EU/ G7 nations write blank checks to developing countries ? That’s obviously not going to happen. From a real Politik perspective it is in rich countries’ interest to get the highest return on their dollars and seek the lowest marginal abatement costs wherever they might be. Poor countries are of course welcome to seek investment from other funders like China and do so already.
Thanks for this Sam. A big issue that I raise in my piece (and that is also a major focus of the FP piece I am responding to) is the ways in which developing financing is constrained by rich country climate signaling. So one important ask is for this dynamic to end. The rest of the climate finance jostling is what seems less and less likely to come to anything, despite the strong ethics and justice rationale, falling into the realm of realpolitik as you say.
Great post! I spent a part of my childhood in Fiji Islands and it's rare to see island nations get such high profile speaking opportunities at any other international forum. It would be a shame to lose it all together.
Dropping in a great clarifying point from a reader: While Trump is planning to pull out of the Paris Agreement (like he did last time), the US will remain a party to the UNFCCC. A big focus of UNFCCC and COP process is on the Paris Agreement, though UNFCCC member countries have other obligations laid out in the foundational treaty.
Thank you for penning a response this this. My question is always what are the critics of COP and the “Western climate cabal”, actually proposing? The EU/ G7 nations write blank checks to developing countries ? That’s obviously not going to happen. From a real Politik perspective it is in rich countries’ interest to get the highest return on their dollars and seek the lowest marginal abatement costs wherever they might be. Poor countries are of course welcome to seek investment from other funders like China and do so already.
Thanks for this Sam. A big issue that I raise in my piece (and that is also a major focus of the FP piece I am responding to) is the ways in which developing financing is constrained by rich country climate signaling. So one important ask is for this dynamic to end. The rest of the climate finance jostling is what seems less and less likely to come to anything, despite the strong ethics and justice rationale, falling into the realm of realpolitik as you say.