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Efforts by nations to unite against escalating environmental crises—climate change, plastic pollution, biodiversity loss, and desertification—are falling short. Despite decades of international negotiations under United Nations (UN) sponsorship, recent meetings have either failed outright or delivered limited outcomes that don’t match the scale of the problems.
Experts interviewed by the Associated Press describe multilateral environmentalism as “broken,” citing a cumbersome consensus process, the influence of the fossil fuel industry, geopolitical shifts, and the sheer complexity of global challenges.
Progress, But Too Little and Too Slow
While some progress is being made, especially on climate change, it’s not enough, said UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen. “Is it frustrating? Yes. Is it difficult? Yes,” she admitted. But multilateral negotiations remain essential, giving smaller and poorer nations a voice alongside powerful, wealthy countries. “I wouldn’t classify it as an outright failure,” she added.
This slow pace is a stark contrast to the optimism of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The 1987 Montreal Protocol successfully tackled the depletion of the ozone layer, and the 1992 Earth Summit established frameworks for addressing environmental challenges, including the now-familiar UN Conference of Parties (COP) system. However, recent COPs have struggled to achieve impactful agreements.
Recent Failures and Limited Outcomes
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Biodiversity COP (Cali, Colombia): Concluded without major agreements, merely acknowledging the efforts of Indigenous communities.
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Climate COP (Baku, Azerbaijan): Secured financing for poorer nations to combat climate change, but the amount fell far short of expectations, leaving many developing nations dissatisfied.
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Plastics Pollution Meeting (Busan, South Korea): Discussions ended without concrete commitments despite widespread agreement on the need for action.
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Desertification Conference (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia): Progress was limited to preliminary stages of negotiation, with decisions deferred.
Structural Challenges
The consensus-based decision-making process, established in the early years of climate negotiations, remains a significant hurdle. Pushed by fossil fuel industry lobbyists and Saudi Arabia, this rule requires unanimous agreement among nations, giving even a single dissenting country the power to block progress. Proposals to replace consensus with majority or supermajority voting have repeatedly failed.
Former UN climate secretary Christiana Figueres, who led the historic 2015 Paris Agreement, lamented the loss of a shared global mindset: “Nine years ago, countries understood that a healthy planet benefits everyone. We’ve lost track of that.”
Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and member of The Elders advocacy group, summed up the dilemma: “The UN system is the worst system except for all the others. They don’t have another.”
Fossil Fuels in the Spotlight
For 27 years, global climate agreements avoided directly addressing fossil fuels—the primary cause of global warming. Only after fierce debates at last year’s COP in Dubai did nations call for a transition away from fossil fuels.
Hope Amidst Challenges
Despite the setbacks, experts maintain hope. They point to the Paris Agreement as proof that global cooperation is possible and emphasize the importance of reforming the decision-making process.
“Progress may be stuttering, but it’s still progress,” Andersen noted. “The stakes are too high to give up.”
As the world grapples with mounting environmental crises, the urgency for effective multilateral action has never been greater. The question remains whether nations can rise above political and economic barriers to confront the challenges threatening the planet’s future.
