From Kyoto to Paris: A historical perspective on international climate change negotiations

We would like to invite you to the 2nd CUEN seminar of the term, which will be presented by Dr. David Reiner. Dr Reiner is currently University Senior Lecturer in Technology Policy and Programme Director of the MPhil in Technology Policy, a joint offering of Cambridge Judge Business School and Cambridge University Engineering Department.

Paris will be the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and there is already considerable attention being paid to the positions of different parties going in to the upcoming negotiations. rather then delving in detail into individual countries' negotiating strategies or gazing into a crystal ball, it may help to reflect on what happened over the preceding two decades to get us to this point? Paris will be the most important climate meeting since Copenhagen in 2009 and arguably since Kyoto in 1997. Should we be optimistic or pessimistic about the potential outcome at Paris? How might we judge or measure success? Why have the outcomes resulted in the particular forms we have seen? Is the Kyoto process 'too big to fail'?