Warning about the legalities arising from Paris

J

ohn Kerry, US secretary of state, has warned that December’s Paris climate change talks will not deliver a “treaty” that legally requires countries to cut their carbon emissions, exposing international divisions over how to enforce a deal.

John Kerry - no legally binding
agreement in Paris.

The EU and other countries have long argued that the accord due to be reached next month should be an “international treaty” with legally binding measures to cut emissions. But in an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Kerry insisted the agreement was “definitively not going to be a treaty”.

Read the Financial Times story - “Paris climate deal will not be a legally binding treaty.”

Are we seeing stubbornness or stupidity?

Lord Nicholas Stern - combatting
climate change and growth
not incompatible.

Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, and his Treasurer, Joe Hockey, have illustrated a stubbornness that could be equated with stupidity.

The pair, facing obvious and overwhelming odds, refused to acknowledge, even when questioned directly that economic growth was inextricably linked to a benign climate, the weakness in their thinking.

Their resistance to the idea and adherence to the belief that the world’s future security and wellbeing was to be found in economic affairs did not even fade when faced with a contrary view from British economist, Lord Nicholas Stern, who in 2006 reviewed the economics of climate change.

Today London’s Financial Times discussed that view in a story headed: “Growth and fighting global climate change not incompatible”.