From Paris Agreement to Action: Enhancing Climate Change Familiarity and Situation Awareness

Abby Onencan,Bartel Van De Walle

doi:10.3390/su10061929

Abstract

The Paris Agreement was a monumental stride towards global climate change governance. It unlocked the climate change gridlock, introducing country-subjective commitments and a five-year review mechanism. To support the implementation of the Paris Agreement, we designed the Nzoia WeShareIt climate change game. Game sessions were conducted in June and July 2015, and 35 respondents completed a pre- and post-game situation awareness (SA) questionnaire and an in-game performance measurement system. The questionnaire uses a 10-dimensional situation awareness rating technique (SART). Subsequently, we conducted a factorial MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance) to assess the interaction effects between familiarity, team, and gender. Results indicate an increase in situation awareness. However, policymakers’ action was not contingent on the increased SA only, there was a significant interaction effect between familiarity and SA, to lead to climate change actions. Therefore, we recommend more emphasis on the role of familiarity in enhancing SA and, subsequently, supporting the implementation to the Paris five-year review country commitments. We also recommend the increased usage of symbols and capacity development of policymakers on connective capacity to enable them to span the climate change boundaries.

Highlights

The Paris Climate Change Agreement that was adopted 12 December 2015 by 195 countries marks a “monumental triumph” [1] that unlocked the “global warming gridlock” [2]
The goal of this paper is to propose policy recommendations to support the implementation of the Paris commitments and contribute to combating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the climate change governance problem
A 3 × 4 factorial Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was conducted to compare the effect of three independent variables (IDVs), on the overall situation awareness as well as on the three SA dimensions

Summary

Introduction

The Paris Climate Change Agreement that was adopted 12 December 2015 by 195 countries marks a “monumental triumph” [1] that unlocked the “global warming gridlock” [2]. In 2009, the Copenhagen Conference (COP-15), sought to combat the GHG emissions problem, by creating a subsequent treaty to the Kyoto protocol [6]. The Copenhagen Conference’s attempt to police nation states and impose mandatory emission reductions failed [6,7]. At this stage, many observers concluded that the climate change negotiations had reached a deadlock [6]. In the midst of the deadlock, the Paris Agreement was successfully adopted [8]. It is a departure from all previous endeavors to manage GHG emissions. Emission cuts are not forced upon countries, but they are voluntarily pledged and later reviewed

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion