economic inequalities within and between countries rather than from the actions of particular countries Support for the view Historically the economically developed states including the USA and UK are responsible for the largest share of carbon emissions which allowed for their growth and development The significance is that, because of historic responsibility, the economically developing world believe that the economically developed world should shoulder the burden of action to counter environmental degradation inevitably a major barrier to progress Per capita emissions rates of many economically developing states is a tiny fraction of developed states, particularly when production for overseas consumerism is taken into account This is significant because economically developing states believe that CO2 measurement should be per capita rather than overall which often reduces their current responsibility Consequently, economically developing states argue that responsibility for mitigation should lay with states who have higher per capita emissions in the economically developed world Despite promises of economic support made in conferences such as Copenhagen and Paris, very little money has been provided to help economically developing states adjust to reductions in carbon pollution This is important because developing states have argued that developed states have a duty to provide economic support to developing states as recognised in the ‘Common but differentiated responsibility’ idea Consequently, economically developing states may consider that they are not being fairly supported by those states who have historic responsibility for emissions and therefore economic inequalities remain a barrier to progress There are significant economic inequalities within states, even within the economically more developed world where wealth may not be shared by all in society This is important because not all citizens within states will feel that they are able or willing to take the suggested action required to make progress on climate change Consequently, citizens within states will not act as required and economic inequalities will remain a major obstacle 2022 Q3B Evaluate the view that the slow rate of progress over climate change results primarily from economic inequalities within and between countries rather than from the actions of particular countries and political institutions. Support against the view China is a rapidly developing state and has been one of the economically fastest growing and wealthiest in world with emissions levels above that of the economically developed states This is important because Chinese emissions now exceed those of the states who were historically responsible for carbon emissions who feel they have every right to expect China and other developing states to cut their emissions Consequently there is opposition to significant mitigation by many developed states in political institutions when they reflect on current carbon emissions in China and other parts of the developing world, believing these states should do more Agreements made in international conferences tend to be rather vague with long term commitments such as the 1997 Kyoto targets which were set, at the time, for 2012. This is important as it seems to reflect a desire by all states for continued economic growth and their focus on protecting their economic interests in political institutions Political institutions allowing for vague, long term commitments, allowing for continued economic growth, suggests that it is the failure of political institutions that leads to a slow rate of progress over climate change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are intergovernmental advisory bodies The importance of this is that the Intergovernmental bodies lack the ability to enforce actions on states to make them adhere to commitments made in conferences which would be possible if they were supranational institutions The inability of the IPCC and UNFCCC to do any more than produce reports for states and encourage them to come together to bring about meaningful commitments suggests that it is the weakness of political institutions that is the cause of slow progress over climate change There is significant

between states involved in climate meetings and discussions over the severity of climate change and whether it can be tackled by adaptation or mitigation strategies with Donald Trump rejecting the Paris agreement on one hand and the EU committed to meaningful cuts without significant use of carbon trading and sinks This is important because states response to climate change remains subject to the actions of changing leaders, lobby groups and differing perspectives within different states Consequently it is challenging for states to consistently find the common ground that is required to make more rapid progress over climate change through effective political institution actions