an episode of the Copenhagen Climate Conference

This was written many hours before “Icarus swims” below (written in the evening), so the “7:48” timestamp just allows for that sequentiality of one day’s postings on the general page of the blog.

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The profoundly important Copenhagen Climate Conference is today stalled apparently because anticipated costs of mediating disputes over “border adjustments” in world trade could have profound consequences for developing nations’ relation to developed nations.

That’s not obvious, since the overt issues are about actual numbers (timing and extent of emissions cuts) and governing norms (e.g., intranational transparency rules). But there is also need for the final, 2010 treaty, to be legally binding internationally. How can international bindingness be enforced? Through border adjustments.

So, though the instrument of border adjustments may sound arcane, the machinery of trade is a keystone of the interface between environmental futures and regional developments. The jetstream of our global order critically (thus, so conflictually) includes the interface of [1] norms governing the World Trade Organization (re: development) and [2] norms that are to undo global warming (re: environmental engineering).

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12/22 — 6:37 am

That’s about one short episode, of course. It’s emblematic of the vast topic of environmental engineering that I’ve been tracking with news articles (archived) for over a decade. (Imagine trying to deal with such an archive. But I will, someday.)

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