From Watts Up With That?

Essay by  Eric Worrall

If the instructions were clearer and more detailed, the peasants would have complied.

Lessons for COP30: 3 Reasons Why Environmental Treaties Consistently Fail

BY AUSTIN JENISHGLOBAL COMMONS SEP 8TH 2025

Environmental treaties consistently fail to translate into concrete action because of poor clarity, excessive breadth, and a lack of depth. Two decades after the Kyoto Protocol and 10 years after the Paris Agreement came into effect, climate change is continuing to worsen. COP30 offers a key opportunity for the global community to discuss the future of international environmental law. But will it succeed?

For decades, countries around the world have drawn up and participated in multilateral and international environmental agreements to address the climate crisis. However, the effectiveness of environmental agreements has been consistently called into question.

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1. Lack of Clarity

A treaty should be designed with clarity to ensure that its signatories can understand and comply with their obligations.

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2. Inappropriate Treaty Breadth

Treaty breadth refers to the broadness of the treaty’s subject matter as well as the potential number of states or organizations that can become members to it.

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3. Insufficient Treaty Depth

The depth of a treaty has a significant effect on its effectiveness. Depth is a function of two variables: stringency and strength. 

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The weakness of international environmental treaties have rendered efforts to combat climate change largely unsuccessful. As nations come together, only a decision to learn from the past by embracing the cost of ambition and precision in developing international environmental law will lay the foundation for a successful deal. 

Read more: https://earth.org/lessons-for-cop30-3-reasons-why-environmental-treaties-consistently-fail/

What can I say? Clearly someone needs to check the water supply in the Earth.org HQ.

Climate treaties fail because the costs of compliance are absurd and the problem they are trying to solve does not exist.

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