Nowadays, climate change is one of the most important current issues, in a long-term but also in a short-term. But also it needs to be discussed in different aspects: locally, regionally, nationally or internationally.


For that reason, many institutions are tightening their relationships in order to work together. Governments are doing the same. In what way can we unite their forces? One of the examples is IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It is promoted by United Nations, and experts and institutions are embraced and supported by governments and research centers.


In this article, I want to focus IPCC work on its consideration about international cooperation. IPCC considers, as a lot of academics, politicians and institutions have considered, that we are living in a new age: the age of Anthropocene, consisting of an era in which human actions are making a bigger impact on Earth, nature and diversity, and also on human beings.


For that reason, in one of its 2014 reports, concretely "Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change", they talk about the need of an international cooperation, not only within civil society, but also between States and promoted by international organizations and specialized institutions and NGOs.


Due to global mixing of greenhouse gases, anthropogenic climate change
is a global common problem. Thus, international cooperation is necessary to achieve significant progress in mitigating climate change. However, made actions are not enough due to their incapacity, limits or problems.


I attach you one of the most important ideas about international cooperation in their executive summary:


1. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the main multilateral forum focused on addressing climate change, with nearly universal participation. Other institutions organized at different levels of governance have resulted in diversifying international climate change cooperation.


2. Existing and proposed international climate change cooperation arrangements vary in their focus and degree of centralization and coordination. They span: multilateral agreements, harmonized national policies and decentralized but coordinated national policies, as well as regional and regionally-coordinated policies.


3. The Kyoto Protocol offers lessons towards achieving the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC, particularly with respect to participation, implementation, flexibility mechanisms, and environmental effectiveness (medium evidence, low agreement). UNFCCC activities since 2007 have led to an increasing number of institutions and other arrangements for international climate change cooperation.


4. Policy linkages among regional, national, and sub-national climate policies offer potential climate change mitigation and adaptation benefits (medium evidence, medium agreement). Linkages can be established between national policies, various instruments, and through regional cooperation.


5. Various regional initiatives between the national and global scales are either being developed or implemented, but their impact on global mitigation has been limited to date (medium confidence). Many climate policies can be more effective if implemented across geographical regions.


The summary of entire report is: http://report.mitigation2014.org/spm/ipcc_wg3_ar5_summary-for-policymakers_approved.pdf


Exhaustive explanation of needs of international cooperation by IPCC is: http://report.mitigation2014.org/drafts/final-draft-postplenary/ipcc_wg3_ar5_final-draft_postplenary_chapter13.pdf


If you want to access to more information, do not doubt to make contact with me!