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  • Essay / The effectiveness of international cooperation in solving transnational environmental problems

    How effective is international cooperation in solving transnational environmental problems? This essay will examine how international cooperation works together, to what extent the international community's contingency plans have been effective in achieving environmental change in transnational issues. Transnational issues refer to threats to environmental issues that affect more than a single nation and their interests, but rather to issues involving states that may be affected in different ways. To effectively determine whether or not international cooperation is effectively achieved in transnational issues, case studies will be used that investigated: The retreat of Antarctic ice and the effects that sea level rise has had on citizens of Bangladesh due to rising sea levels. To effectively understand this problem, international theories such as neorealism and reason of state will be used. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The United Nations essay is an example of how states work together on a transnational issue. The organization shares strong neoliberal views. The structure of the United Nations Environmental Program (UN Environment Program) is an example of neoliberalism, as nation states transfer some power and control to the United Nations Environment Program (Evans, 2012). UNEP is an organization capable of bringing together 193 nations to cooperate on transnational environmental issues (UNEP, 2009). Among these 193 countries, there are seven important members: China, the United States, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and India (UNEP, 2009). These UNEP members strive to adopt a utopian model. The utopian model refers to the effort to create a place of ideal, social, moral and political conditions (Evans, 2012), which is evident in the way the United Nations and UNEP strive to create better political conditions for transnational environmental issues. This desire to bring about significant change in transnational environmental issues is seen in the Magdeburg Environmental Forum. The Magdeburg Environmental Forum brought together 250 high-ranking associates representing key stakeholders: science, politicians, industrial sectors and NGOs within the framework of Sustainable Mobility – The post-2012 CO2 agenda (United Nations Program for environment, 2012). This program also achieved significant success in reaching an agreement with the German manufacturing company Daimler AG, which agreed to extend the memorandum of understanding with UNEP (Brock, 2012). Daimler said that with the help of UNEP, they will continue to optimize their engines for better environmental efficiency, increase the fuel cell efficiency of hybrid cars, and explore future renewable energy resources for cars (Brock, 2012). UNEP has been successful in drawing attention to renewable energy resources in developing countries. One of the successes of the 2002 Sustainable Development Report was to highlight that more needed to be done to narrow the gap between developed and developing countries in sustainable development (York, 2012). UNEP saw India as an example of how investments in its stagnant renewable energy market could help bridgethe gap (UNEP, 2015). In 2003, UNEP launched the UNEP Solar Loan Project. This project was implemented through a partnership between UN branches and two of India's most powerful banking groups – Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank, and their sponsored Grameen Banks (UNEP, 2015). This project made it possible to grant 19,533 loans and revive investments in renewable energies in India. In 2011, India was the largest producer in the vast renewable energy market, growing 62 percent to $12 billion (UNEP, 2015). Although the United Nations has achieved relative success with cooperation between states in environmental matters. The intentional community has been unable to address the issue of setting a fixed limit on greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. The greenhouse effect refers to the warming effect of (greenhouse) gases such as CO2 and NOX that trap heat from the sun in the atmosphere (Government, 2015). This can be seen in how it took two years for members of the United Nations to agree on the Kyoto Protocol, after having already agreed that the limits of the United Nations Framework Convention were insufficient (United Nations, 2014). This lack of transnational cooperation is reflected in the continued deterioration and retreat of the West Antarctic ice sheet. Professor Alexander (et al) during the 1990s stated that increasing surface temperatures in Antarctica would cause sea levels to rise, and stated that ice shelves like Larsen were deteriorating due to of the increase in global surface air temperature (Church, 2010). . The professor stressed the need to reduce greenhouse emissions (nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide), particularly those emitted by power plants. However, these recommendations were never taken into account, partly due to the lack of effective cooperation from countries under the Kyoto Protocol within the UN framework. The protocol is an international agreement between members of the United Nations and non-member countries to set mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions (Evans, 2012). Protocol members failed to reduce global CO2 emissions (a key objective of the Protocol) during its period of authority (1995-2010) (Clark, 2012). Global CO2 emissions were not decreasing, but rather tending to increase. During the period that the Protocol was in force, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (established by the United Nations) had published its findings and observations. Their assessments in the 1990s told countries that there was a clear link between the increase in greenhouse gases (such as CO2) emitted by human movements and one of the main causes of global warming. In a 2007 report, they stated with 90% certainty that global warming over the past 50 years was due to human activities (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1990). The 2007 report informed the international community that this increase in global average surface air temperature would lead to melting of land ice, causing seas to rise by at least 20 cm by 2030 and 65 cm by 2030. by the end of the next century (Intergovernmental Panel of Experts). on climate change, 2007). However, despite these warnings and recommendations from the IPCC, the international community has failed to cooperate under the Kyoto Protocol. The failure of the Kyoto Protocol can be attributed to the fact that countries like the United States, India, China andAustralia (Australia finally ratified the protocol in 2007) have failed to cooperate on agreements to limit their greenhouse gas emissions (Clark, 2012). The reason these nations may have chosen not to cooperate with the international community is the theory of Reason of State. This means that countries would not cooperate and accept the limits because, in their view, the limits would not benefit or strengthen their position in any way, and therefore they would not cooperate (Evans, 2012). This is seen when US President Bush did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol because it would harm their economy. President Bush also said that the protocol was not fair because other major polluters like China and India were not required to reduce their emissions and the President believed it would put the United States in a disadvantageous economic situation (Reynolds, 2001). This lack of cooperation can be attributed to some nationals putting their interests ahead of the transition issue and is a major problem for international cooperation, as there is no truly effective way to force an economically strong nation like China or the United States to accept these protocols (Biden). , 2015). The lack of cooperation has had dramatic consequences for the stability and security of the West Antarctic Ice Shelf (WAIS). The WAIS is a marine ice sheet composed of two sections: ice anchored to the ground below sea level and ice shelves which are floating extensions of ice attached horizontally to the ice sheet. The WAIS contains 3 million cubic kilometers of ice; if this volume of water were to be introduced into the sea, it would cause a sea level rise of 4 meters (Spencer Weart & American Institute of Physics, 2015). The effects of global warming on the WAIS were noted in the 1960s, when the Wordie Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula retreated; by the 1980s the peninsula had completely disintegrated (Vaughan, 2010). Once again, the international community and the world will witness the consequences of failed cooperation on global warming when the North Larsen B ice shelf collapses in 2002. The collapse of the ice shelf North Larsen B ice form took only 6 weeks (NASA, 2010). ice cap and melting glaciers, due to anthropogenic activities, have led to an acceleration in sea level rise (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007). According to National Geographic, the current average annual sea level is 3.2 mm, twice the rate of sea rise over the past 80 years, with the Antarctic region contributing about 0.2 mm to the increase. sea ​​level rise per year (National Geographic, 2015). This rise in sea levels has dramatic effects on low-lying countries like Bangladesh. The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in Bangladesh is the region that is and will be most affected by current sea level rise (Smith, 2015). The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta is located in Bangladesh and West Bengal in India. It is the largest delta in Asia and is home to approximately 111 million people (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2011), the majority of whom are vulnerable and economically dependent on delta lands for survival. earn a living. The Sandwip Islands, located in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, are already experiencing the adverse effects of rising sea levels due to global warming; this is evident from the manner in which islands such as Sanwip Islands, Kutubdia, are eroding (Vidal, 2013). Rising sea levels will pollute the water table, 2015).