Stephen Krasner has written that "organized hypocrisy" is common practice in world politics. He means states often paper over conflicts with sham accords while each continues to pursue its own interests.
Thus, 187 nations have signed the Kyoto Protocol, resoundingly declaring the signatories' resolve to curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Most of them are exempt from emission controls, and the ones that are not have acted largely as they would have had no agreement been reached. Global emissions of carbon dioxide have continued to grow.
The United Nations Conference of Parties in Copenhagen will follow this pattern. While all countries proclaim a wish to lower GHG emissions, developing countries refuse to pay the requisite costs to do so. Most developed countries also are reluctant to incur GHG control costs, and they clearly are unwilling to pay the very large costs required for China and India to significantly restrain their fast-growing emissions. Yet without tight global emission limits, atmospheric levels of GHGs will continue to rise.
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