Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the distribution of weather patterns over a long period. Some individuals deny climate change, which might cause a repeat of the failed Copenhagen summit. The interplay of forces between the EU, the basic countries, and the umbrella group of countries decide the outcome of climate conferences. Kyoto protocol was the world’s only effective legal agreement on climate yet it was not embraced.
Although the basic countries emit more greenhouse gases than the rest of the world, they can be persuaded to accept the Kyoto protocol with regulated emissions to save their poor from punishment due to immediate change.
Further, it has been denied by political players who influence government decision-making and are funded internationally especially by the USA APCO introduced an astroturfing strategy to counter-attack the scientific climate change report. Front groups and industry-funded websites e.g. TASSC and TCS funded by companies like EXXON, teach people against junk science on global warming, bringing controversy hence delaying the decision to look for a solution. Right-wing think tanks e.g. the competitive enterprise institute also, deny climate change. In Australia, the denialists are led by Hugh Morgan and Ray Evans.
Morgan a C.E.O at Western Mining Corporation has a profound influence on the Australian debate on climate change. He is against environmentalism and views the Kyoto protocol as an invasion of Australia. He influenced greatly Prime Minister Howard against the carbon tax bill. Ray Evans is the founder of many activist groups such as Lavoisier, which he formed together with Hugh Morgan, and it opposed the Kyoto protocol in Australia. The bureau of the meteorological department in Australia had been silent on the climate change debate with its then-president being a close associate of Hugh Morgan and Ray Evans.
The environmental policy-making process involves incremental distribution or redistribution of wealth for power and is complicated due to the sovereign status of each participating policymaker. It gives science a strong voice in agenda-setting and formulation and is more science-driven than others.
Advocacy coalitions are interest groups for political and economical advantage and consist of environmental advocacy with five important cluster coalitions based on; human health, ecological health, global geochemical change, sustainable resource consumption, and spiritual and ethical development. These are organized around seven significant enterprises; energy industries, forestry and wood products, food and agriculture, real estates, automotive manufacturers, chemical industries, and the government. All these give the environmental making process as follow,
- Initiation process where agendas are set and issues developed.
- Formulation where the options are assessed.
- Selection where adoption and legitimization of options are done.
- Budgeting and implementation where a budget is prepared and implemented.
- Evaluation and adjustment, where the options implemented are reviewed periodically.
- Termination where it is meant to start over again after a given period.
The understanding of the international environmental policy process as a procedural pattern of learning does not go far enough in explaining the powerful forces that operate to shape our present system of environmental governance. Therefore the need for aggressive reform of the present international policy is pretty obvious.