Mukul Sanwal

Global climate policy should now move away from its sole focus on reduction of emissions of carbon dioxide, which is a symptom of the problem, to discussing its causes and strategies. This article argues that, with the largest emitter opting out, the key issue is the broader response from the late developers, in particular India, reframing both the design and implementation of the climate regime.

The success of the Paris Agreement will depend on how soon the countries whose emissions have peaked achieve zero-emission levels; and how China, India and other developing countries define their urban future. It will also depend on developing a common understanding of whether technological changes alone will suffice and come quickly enough to meet the world's huge and growing need for energy, transportation, food, buildings and goods within a reframed urban transition.

Preparations for the Rio+20 United Nations conference on sustainable development have begun, but the first round of preparatory meetings did not address important issues such as sustainable resource use, production and consumption.

The climate negotiations in this month will set the post-Copenhagen agenda, and the strategic issue for developing countries is whether to focus on the new architecture of monitoring, reporting and verification or on developing a new framework that redefines the principle of common but differentiated...

Global environmental problems like climate change should be conceptualised as problems of consumption and not production patterns. A consumption rather than a production-based vision for environmentally sustainable economic growth would make the design and implementation of climate protection, as well as other environmental problems, more effective. Moreover, implementation in the context of international burden sharing, where benefits are not equally shared, requires a very different organising framework that is not based on cost-benefit analysis and commitments to reduce emissions determined in international negotiations, but rather on political justice and transfer of technology.