Have Climate Policies Bitten the Dust?

1/15/20230 min read

In South Korea, where I live, climate actions have been adjudged “highly insufficient”; its latest nationally determined contribution, calculated to cut domestic emissions by 32%, falls short of the 59% needed under the Paris Agreement (Climate Action Tracker). The theoretical ratchet mechanism, referring to countries’ increasing ambition for reducing domestic emissions (CarbonBrief 2015), has underdelivered here and elsewhere.

Climate policies have flatlined for a number of reasons:

  • Aversion to the immediate costs of climate action (Levin et al 2012:128-129)

  • Fears of losing votes, investments, and jobs (The Newsroom 2018)

  • Infatuation with growth and near-term profit (The Newsroom 2018)

  • Neocorporatist entrenchment of fossil fuel producers (Karapin 2012:48), their influence over policy and politicians (Da Rimini et al 2021:296), and narratives which reinforce such influence (Da Rimini et al 2021:296)

  • Insufficient authority by public authorities to coordinate and execute necessary action (Levin et al 2012:127)

  • General climate denial (The Newsroom 2018)

Neartermism is perhaps the most significant factor. The example of the tobacco industry is often alluded to when discussing climate policy failure; instant gratification of continued addiction (to smoking or a high-emission lifestyle) overshadows the high likelihood of future harm.

The unfortunate side-effect of recent increasingly frequent and intense climate disasters worldwide has resulted in climate change garnering more attention in the news and public discourse. Such attention however has not yet resulted in more forceful climate action.

While present climate policy is uninspiring, I am hopeful in our young generation, who appear to have grasped these dark realities and are ready to provoke real change.

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