"failed to deliver any sort of binding commitment to reducing global carbon emissions"
The main problem with the COP conferences is that they have repeatedly failed to deliver any sort of binding commitment to reducing global carbon emissions. The voluntary nature of agreements reached consistently lacks the legally binding power to enforce any sort of meaningful climate change mitigation, ultimately allowing the world’s biggest polluters to sidestep their environmental responsibilities without being held accountable for the consequences. This loophole has transformed COP conferences into breeding grounds for symbolic gestures rather than effective, measurable action from states, encapsulated by the decision to appoint Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber to lead the most recent COP28 talks, a UAE oil chief executive who has claimed there is “no science” behind demands for a fossil fuel phase-out.
What’s more, the COP decision-making process for reaching non-binding multilateral agreements is both long and highly bureaucratic, meaning that more time is spent trying to reach a consensus among nations than enforcing effective climate action strategies. A binding treaty with robust accountability measures, for example, could provide a framework for ensuring that states uphold their climate commitments and take tangible steps towards reducing carbon emissions, rather than encouraging empty promises and non-compliance.
"breeding grounds for symbolic gestures"
It may well be that hundreds of country representatives gather at the COP conferences to discuss climate change mitigation efforts, however the lack of inclusivity in the COP decision-making processes is in fact incredibly worrying. Addressing the environmental issues we currently face requires a collaborative approach that acknowledges various different forms of knowledge and differing levels of responsibility, yet instead, the COP conferences consistently prioritise scientifically obtained Western knowledge in negotiating climate policies, ultimately overlooking the much-needed participation of groups who are uniquely and disproportionately affected by climate change and biodiversity loss.
"Climate change is an urgent, time-sensitive challenge"
Whilst the UN COP conferences have undoubtedly increased publicity and discussion around the climate crisis in the past decade, their many shortcomings are indicative of the desperate need for a transformation of global climate governance. Climate change is an urgent, time-sensitive challenge that requires swift, decisive action, and so it’s time that symbolic gestures and empty pledges under the guise of “historic agreements” are scrapped in favour of enforceable treaties that hold nations accountable for their climate actions. What is needed now is a transformative approach to climate governance that first and foremost puts a stop to the many procedural ways in which civil society actors and knowledges are excluded from decision-making processes, to ensure that representative, effective solutions can be formulated to properly tackle the climate crisis.
