What’s Gone Wrong?

Abstract

As an initial matter, the study has taken note of extenuated delays arising from some contemporaneous and rather creative UNFCCC approaches to negotiate an effective climate accord with legal force. That reaching normative consensus has been allowed to languish over a 22-year period, the UNFCCC having been adopted in 1992, is somewhat surprising given the urgent and irreversible threat that the adverse effects of climate change represent to human societies and the planet. Such an extensive period of sluggishness may lead the global community to think that protecting humankind is not a serious concern. Aside from that, negotiating failure may be indicative of a breakdown of fundamental normative decision-making processes.