Dr Rafael Leal-Arcas - Why climate change architecture isn't working

28 November 2011 Dr Rafael-Leal Arcas was quoted in the leading Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 24 November 2011. The article Ein langfristiges Politik-Experiment was the result of an invitation Dr Leal-Arcas received to speak at the University of Bern in October 2011 on why he believes the current climate change architecture (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol) is not working. The article notes his conclusions that no breakthroughs will take place regarding a global climate change agreement until there is more political maturity on the side of the US, and until rapidly emerging economies such as China and India indicate that they are ready to play their part in tackling the climate change challenge, since they are part of the solution. Large emitters of greenhouse gases need to be involved for negotiations to come to a conclusion. Much progress is still needed until an international agreement is reached that covers all the world’s countries and that is strong enough to tackle climate change effectively and is equitable enough to gain the sympathy of all countries.