Holding Delinquent Countries Accountable

But is the COP all for nothing? The facts are that even as developed countries are making commitments, similar to which was done in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the document is not legally binding and as such they are not obligated to comply. And the fund promised in Paris was not forthcoming either. Dr. Young says small states must hold the larger ones accountable. 

Dr. Colin Young

Dr. Colin Young, Executive Director, CCCCC

“It is very easy to lose hope and faith in the multilateral process that is the Convention and you are absolutely right, this historic Paris Agreement that was signed in 2016 is not legally binding. But had it been, we probably would not have had a Paris Agreement. What we are fighting for here, in addition to the money that they promised to deliver, a hundred billion which they have not – they’ve actually failed in that respect – and in terms of trying to keep one point five within reach, we are well past that based on what we have seen. But there is another part of the Paris Agreement that we are really pushing as the region that is called the transparency portion of the Paris Agreement. What that does, even though it is not legally binding, we want to have a transparent approach to how we look at all of what is being done. So if you say that you are going to give us a certain amount of money, then we want to have a transparent way of tracking how much you give. So that we know and not just us, but everybody knows and then there is this moral pressure that can be applied if you are just a talker and you don’t do what you say you’re going to do. All of the countries that are vulnerable ought to hold them accountable just like how we should hold all of those in the G20 and all of those in the G7 because they are the ones responsible. The G20 – eighty percent of the greenhouse gas emissions come from the G20 and out of the G20, you have three blocks: the E.U., China and the United States, they are responsible for sixty percent. The bottom one hundred and eighty countries are responsible for less than four percent. Come on, man. This is about what is fair and what is just and what is climate justice. And so we need to band together as small vulnerable countries and in Belize, we would say, bad mouth them when they don’t live up to their obligations that is promised under the Paris Agreement.”