United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

In the past decades, the phenomenon of climate change has been a major concern to the international community. Leaders of the world came together to find a solution for the problem that threatening our common home "planet". The international community has taken series of actions in response to the problem by adopting some international agreements. The international community initiative includes drafting measures to achieve the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (Kyoto Protocol) in order to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and to prevent dangerous interference with the climate. The article written by Scott Barrett and Robert Stavins analysis the effectiveness of such international protocol while proposing…

currently facing issues of previously unprecedented scope, chief amongst them climate change. It is an unfortunate by-product of our unrestrained technological innovation, chiefly coal powered industrialism and the burning of fossil fuels, to the detriment of the global commons. We are attempting to challenge Climate Change through the neoliberal institutionalist framework of the United Nations treaty system, which remains ineffective in combating multilateral concerns such as climate change, in…

There hasn’t yet exactly been an effective collective state response when responding to the issue, there have been numerous treaties and long-term endeavors proposed, however, a lack of progress continues for many countries around the globe, especially for China and the United States. Individuals, businesses and the governments of various nations are forthcoming ways to respond to the issue, however, there have been considerable setbacks and other conflicts down the line. A prime example would…

Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC (2005) The Agreement and its Goals: The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which aimed to mitigate anthropogenic effects of greenhouse gases on the environment by introducing a set of binding emission reduction targets for individual countries. Considering the threatening scale of the problem and the wide geographical distribution of GHG emissions, the Protocol required…

at the top of the international agenda when bringing up the issue of climate change and this is because of the controversial position of the Chinese government on the matter throughout the years. China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol; nevertheless the country was exempt from committing to an emissions target reduction since China was not one of the main contributors to global warming during the period of industrialization that is believed to be the cause of climate change (Feldon, 2007: 60).…

2. TERRITORIAL WATERS Article 2(1) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)48 provides that, “[t]he sovereignty of a coastal State ex-tends, beyond its land territorial and internal waters and, in the case of an archipelagic State, its archipelagic waters, to an adjacent belt of sea, described as the territorial sea”. This maritime zone extends up to 12 nautical miles (Article 3, UNCLOS). The only major exception to this sovereign power of the state is the right of…

archipelagic waters of an archipelagic State”. High seas cannot be appropriated by any country and this does not imply the lack of rules, rather it implies that all states have equal rights and freedoms within the high seas. Article 87 UNCLOS gives a non-exhaustive list84 of freedoms: “1. The high seas are open to all States, whether coastal or land-locked. Freedom of the high seas is exercised under the conditions laid down by this Convention and by other rules of international law. It…

The Pit and the Pendulum      The Pit and the Pendulum is a story about a man confined to a prison cell and tortured mercilessly in Toledo Spain during the Spanish Inquisition. Edgar Allen Poe's story is powerful because the prisoner tells the story of his torture. Given this you know he is going to survive which helps make the mystery so much more complex.      The plot is very believable and consistent. Poe shows great detail in the…

The Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture came into force in 2006, many nations have only recently ratified it and are still working on execution. The OPCAT is significant because it is a fundamental concept within the UN human rights system because it established a concrete structure of systematic and unannounced visits to detention centers. This has a huge emphasizes on prevention of inhumane treatment, instead of deferring to construct punishment after violations have already…

Guinn_ENVM620_M5_GradedAssign 1. Climate change is defined as a broad range of changes that are happening to the planet and include: Rising sea levels, shrinking mountain glaciers, accelerated ice melt at the poles, which is primarily the result of human activity of burning of fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide (a heat trapping gas) into the air (Dunbar, n.d.). The key arguments in support of global climate change include both natural cases and manmade causes. Some of these natural…