6 - Pathologies of National Politics in the Global South

Summary

Collectively, developing countries are the source of one-third of the global pollution causing climate change. If one classifies China as a developing country, then all developing countries combined currently produce about two-thirds of global greenhouse gas pollution. Their emissions are on course to rise without far more effective governance measures. Thus, the future of climate governance, and indeed of the climate crisis, will very much depend on whether more attention is given to what is happening in developing countries. Vitally, many of these countries are the most vulnerable to climate change. For some of them, climate change is becoming an existential threat, as it certainly will be for millions, and potentially hundreds of millions, of their citizens. Developing countries are in precarious positions in the context of global climate governance. For a few economically emerging countries, such as India, their contribution to climate change is very substantial, but the least developed countries of the world, and many small and highly vulnerable island states are often hapless victims of a problem created almost entirely by others.