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The Paris Agreement to Ignore Reality

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  • Clive L. Spash
Abstract
At the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Paris, France, 30 November to 11 December 2015, an Agreement was reached by the international community including 195 countries. The Agreement has been hailed, by participants and the media, as a major turning point for policy in the struggle to address human induced climate change. The following is a short critical commentary in which I briefly explain why the Paris Agreement changes nothing. I highlight how the Agreement has been reached by removing almost all substantive issues concerning the causes of human induced climate change and offers no firm plans of action. Instead of substantive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, as soon as possible, the intentions of the parties promise escalation of damages and treat worst case scenarios as an acceptable 50:50 chance. The Paris Agreement signifies commitment to sustained industrial growth, risk management over disaster prevention, and future inventions and technology as saviour. The primary commitment of the international community is to maintain the current social and economic system. The result is denial that tackling greenhouse gas emissions is incompatible with sustained economic growth. The reality is that Nation States and international corporations are engaged in an unremitting and ongoing expansion of fossil fuel energy exploration, extraction and combustion, and the construction of related infrastructure for production and consumption. The targets and promises of the Paris Agreement bear no relationship to biophysical or social and economic reality.

Suggested Citation

  • Clive L. Spash, 2016. "The Paris Agreement to Ignore Reality," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2016_01, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwsre:sre-disc-2016_01
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    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/sre-disc/sre-disc-2016_01.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Clive L. Spash, 2014. "Better Growth, Helping the Paris COP-out? Fallacies and Omissions of the New Climate Economy Report," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2014_04, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
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    Cited by:

    1. Steffen S. Bettin, 2020. "Electricity infrastructure and innovation in the next phase of energy transition—amendments to the technology innovation system framework," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 371-395, November.
    2. Spash, Clive L., 2017. "The Need for and Meaning of Social Ecological Economics," SRE-Discussion Papers 2017/02, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    3. Marlene Kammerer & Chandreyee Namhata, 2018. "What drives the adoption of climate change mitigation policy? A dynamic network approach to policy diffusion," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 51(4), pages 477-513, December.
    4. Dylan Gibson & Leslie A. Duram, 2020. "Shifting Discourse on Climate and Sustainability: Key Characteristics of the Higher Education Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-17, December.
    5. Clive L. Spash & Clemens Gattringer, 2016. "The Economics and Ethics of Human Induced Climate Change," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2016_02, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    6. Juan Telleria & Jorge Garcia-Arias, 2022. "The fantasmatic narrative of ‘sustainable development’. A political analysis of the 2030 Global Development Agenda," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 40(1), pages 241-259, February.
    7. Spash, Clive L., 2020. "A tale of three paradigms: Realising the revolutionary potential of ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    8. Stefano F. Verde & Simone Borghesi, 2022. "The International Dimension of the EU Emissions Trading System: Bringing the Pieces Together," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 83(1), pages 23-46, September.
    9. João Camargo & Iñaki Barcena & Pedro M. Soares & Luísa Schmidt & Javier Andaluz, 2020. "Mind the climate policy gaps: climate change public policy and reality in Portugal, Spain and Morocco," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 151-169, July.
    10. Ingolfur Blühdorn & Michael Deflorian, 2019. "The Collaborative Management of Sustained Unsustainability: On the Performance of Participatory Forms of Environmental Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-17, February.
    11. Neli Aparecida de Mello-Théry & Eduardo de Lima Caldas & Beatriz M. Funatsu & Damien Arvor & Vincent Dubreuil, 2020. "Climate Change and Public Policies in the Brazilian Amazon State of Mato Grosso: Perceptions and Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-20, June.
    12. Sharafat Ali & Haiyan Xu & Najid Ahmad, 2021. "Reviewing the strategies for climate change and sustainability after the US defiance of the Paris Agreement: an AHP–GMCR-based conflict resolution approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 11881-11912, August.

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