That Plan from Rio: The Promise and Limits of Multilateral Climate Governance

Abstract

Abstract: The Rio Earth Summit of 1992 was the culmination of three decades of environmental activism and national policy responses. It sought to reduce pressures on nature without curtailing the Global North’s wealth or thwarting the Global South’s economic development. Since Rio, science has become more granular, the world economy has grown phenomenally, greenhouse gas emissions and global heating have accelerated rather than slowed, the climate crisis and inequality have become more extreme, and the status quo interests have become more entrenched. After three lost (wasted, rather) decades, climate mitigation is terribly urgent yet hugely contested. Voodoo technology, such as carbon capture, will not save the day.