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Climate measuring tools

Stronger global governance is needed to mitigate human impact on the earth's climate and to ensure sustainable development. This is the statement of 32 scientists who published a paper in the journal Science.

The article criticizes institutions around the world, including the United Nations, as inadequate for facing the issue.

Lead author Frank Biermann, an environmental policy specialist from VU University in Amsterdam, cites climate change as the most prominent example of the failure of global governance to meet the needs of global society.

"It just takes a long time normally to get new agreements in place," Biermann says. "One example is climate change where the first Framework Convention has been negotiated in 1992. And since then, there is no change in the emissions trends of major countries."

"I mean the current state of global climate governance is surely not effective in dealing with the challenge of global warming that we see today."

The scientists recommend changes both within and outside of the United Nations, including:

The authors are primarily public policy experts affiliated with universities including Yale, Oxford, the University of California, the University of Oregon, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Colorado State University, among others.

Sources

Forbes