Selin: Climate Accord ‘No Victory’
If a projected outcome for this winter’s UNFCCC climate summit comes to pass – nations committing to a global warming threshold of 4.3 degrees over the next 100 years, rather than the 2 degrees recommended by top environmental scientists – don’t call it a victory. According to one Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies professor, such a compromise might look like progress, but it’s not enough to forestall a climate disaster.
Henrik Selin, Associate Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School, made his case in a June 17 article in US News & World Report entitled, “Why an ‘Inadequate’ Climate Agreement Might be OK – or Not.”
From the text of the article:
Others still stop short, though, of calling the “inadequate” climate agreement something worth celebrating.
“It’s a small step forward, a small step in the right direction,” says Henrik Selin, associate professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. “But not very quickly adopting the kind of measures that are needed to stay within the 2-degree target is a planetary failure. I find it very difficult to use the ‘V-word’ here. I would not flash my fingers in a victory sign.”
You can read the entire article here.
Selin is also the Associate Director of the Pardee School’s Division of International Studies. Learn more about him here.