All states engaging in international efforts to fight the climate crisis have complete governmental control over their territories. That’s the wrongful assumption often made by COP and other global governance organisations – a mistake that has worrying consequences.
Take, for example, the 2015 Paris Agreement, which world leaders signed at COP21, the 21st annual conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The treaty sets out a framework for a global carbon market to help limit global heating to a maximum of 2℃ above pre-industrial levels.
The agreement is built on the basis that national governments control their territory and its natural resources – and crucially that they can prevent deforestation and illegal mining. This state-centric view does not reflect the on-the-ground reality in many countries, including the host of this year’s COP30: Brazil.
