Upon the signing of the Paris Agreement on April 22, 2016, the world hailed the 180 signatories as having taken the responsible step towards combating climate change. Mainstream media proclaimed that global cooperation would be into effect immediately. Yet, what such entities ignore is the numerous structural barriers which will have to be overtaken for the Paris Agreement to even succeed and even if they are overcome, the Paris Agreement is irrelevant to solving climate change.
One of the most fundamental problems with the Paris Agreement is there there lies no single mechanism for enforcing it. Climate change poses a huge free rider problem which key emitters such as India and China are unwilling to take seriously in favor of diverting extensive resources towards. Green tech implementation over the course of the next few years in India is unfeasible because the government has been taking no steps towards investing in clean energy and faces no incentives to do so. And this isn't a case which isolates India. No developing country wants to risk reducing its economic growth just so that it can contribute to a public good when wealthier countries can do the same.
Moving towards cooperation in facing climate change seriously requires developing high levels of trust between all countries, in which everyone contributes to reducing their assigned greenhouse gas emissions levels without any equity concerns. This amount of trust has to be incredibly high considering that if a country is to cheat, there would be no consequences. This is because there is no global governance in the international system which has the sufficient authority to carry through the Paris Agreement.
Last week, China and the US ratified the Paris Agreement. What does that symbolize? Nothing. Just delusions for the international system to represent that the two largest emitters want the rest of the world to share the burden of reducing CO2 levels and want to showcase their seriousness towards a cleaner, green world. When both countries amount to comprising 40% of the world's total CO2 pollution, the blame game when adverse climate change effects will be triggered won't be hard to play. At that time, China and the US will want to save face by pinpointing events such as these to prove that they have in fact worked hard towards curtailing emissions and transition into clean energy, but the international system worked against them by not taking matters seriously.
When you have a treaty with no metrics for policy implementation, failure is imminent. Most developing countries lack the resources and money to build green energy projects and transition away from dirty coal, yet the Paris Agreement "requires" that its members magically curtail their emissions. It's imperative that China and the United States venture into a bilateral cooperation on reducing CO2 emissions and developing clean tech before committing to any international climate treaties so that instead of simply talking about climate change, they can act, sending an international signal to facilitate enhanced cooperation on climate change and mechanisms for developing countries to participate who are so essential in solving global warming.
