Global Climate Change and Leadership: The Role of Major Players in Finding Solutions to Common Problems

In the international negotiations aiming to solve the global warming problem, the world is still far from reaching a meaningful agreement able to substantially curb emissions. One reason for this failure is a free-rider problem inherent to all public goods. Additionally, the way climate change negotiations are conducted are an artifact of the past and not suitable for an increasingly multipolar world. Given these structural problems, unsurprisingly neither the US nor China are willing to play the role required of them to foster negotiation success. Europe however, is to some degree willing to lead but lacks leverage. To improve the chances of solving the global warming problem, our leaders should therefore consider changing the negotiation rules.