Conclusion: State powers on global climate change—lessons learned

This concluding chapter to this study of state powers on global climate change (GCC) summarizes many of the basic findings made in the preceding chapters. To address GCC, collective action will be required of the major state powers along with states throughout the developed and the less developed world. The negotiations within the UN framework over the last several years have provided an important tool for the search for a common set of strategies on GCC. There is an unequal sharing of political power between developed and developing countries, that provided initial barriers to a cohesive international strategy, which may be mitigated by the less hierarchical, self-determined obligations in the Paris Agreement. However, a focus on state security concerns could deprive needed resources, as well as undercut the strategies based in needs for human security, those of mitigation, adaptation, and capacity building, that will be needed to address GCC. In this GCC is reframing various state and international institutions’ understandings of human security. This chapter argues that a reframing of the understandings of human security in the context of GCC could draw lessons from the concept of sustainable development. This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book argues that a reframing of the understandings of human security in the context of global climate change (GCC) could draw lessons from the concept of sustainable development. It explores multiple GCC strategies proposed by the major state powers in the international community. The book discusses state and human security and conceptualized these concepts in relation to the ongoing global debate on climate change. It argues that the traditional notion of state security with its focus on state sovereignty presents a major hindrance to global collective strategies on GCC and for the enhancement of human security. The book addresses climate change consequences in African societies due to rising temperature, escalation of droughts, storms, and floods across the continent creating a scarcity of resources, climate refugees, and social and political tensions.