ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a thorough overview of international deliberations to address climate change, including the institutionalization of atmospheric governance in the form of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the subsequent Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement. Debates over the Kyoto Protocol are discussed, with a focus on the so-called North/South divide. The principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities and its institutionalization of the Annex I/non-Annex I distinction are discussed as an effort to create a fair burden-sharing arrangement for climate mitigation. The US refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on the basis of a negation of this binary framework, and the subsequent rejection of the Kyoto Protocol are examined in a way that centers – while critically examining – Global South positions on these debates. This chapter is situated within the Global Environmental Politics and Critical Geopolitics literatures. The latter provides critical frameworks that question the validity of the Global North and South imaginaries. The chapter presents an analysis of the representational practices using and contesting these spatial and scalar imaginaries, drawing on the author’s original research, including interviews with members of India’s government and civil society organizations, and a review of policy documents.
