Request for Information: Alternate Diplomatic and Development Pathways to Achieving the Paris Agreement Goals

Request for Information

United States Institute of Peace

Advancing Climate Change Ambition:

Alternate Diplomatic and Development Pathways to

Achieving the Paris Agreement Goals

Release Date:

April 29, 2024

RFI Due Date for Comments:

May 24, 2024 at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

Submit Comments to:

Katherine Waters (kwaters@usip.org)

The response must be submitted by the time and date listed above to be considered.  No responses will be accepted after the due date.

 Comment Submission Requirements:

1. Submit any comments as an attachment to the e-mail as either a Word or PDF file (not in the body of the email message).
2. Include a brief overview of the institution(s) and/or organization(s) submitting comments, as well as a short biography of the individual(s) directly involved in substantively preparing comments.

 

 Introduction and Background

The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is a national, nonpartisan, independent institute, founded by Congress and dedicated to the proposition that a world without violent conflict is possible, practical, and essential for U.S. and global security. In conflict zones abroad, the Institute works with local partners to prevent, mitigate, and resolve violent conflict. For more information, please visit http://www.usip.org.

The Program on Climate, Environment, and Conflict (CEC) at USIP aims to advance research and policy development that will mitigate or prevent the risk of violent conflict and political unrest around climate change.  Recognizing that climate change is likely to become a critical driver of conflict and political instability from small to large scales, USIP is planning to explore policy options to advance climate action as a way to prevent or mitigate the risks.

Parties to the Paris Agreement of 2015 have not yet met its objective of reducing global average temperature rise to 1.5oC.  Built on voluntary action and reliant on “peer pressure” to increase the ambition of countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, the agreement  is susceptible to the failure of ambitious commitments to drive action.  In 2023, the first “Global Stocktake”, which evaluates collective progress toward achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals, clarified how far away the global community is from achieving its shared goals.  In 2024, countries are slated to return with updated commitments reflective of the collective action necessary, but significantly better outcomes are not expected.

Unlike other issues, such as human rights, climate change has not been widely integrated into the U.S. foreign policy agenda.  Starting in the 1970s in the post-Vietnam War era, Congress pushed for the U.S. State Department to incorporate consideration of human rights issues into diplomatic relationships.  It also established legislation that mandated regular human rights reports on every country that receives U.S. aid and banned military and economic aid to countries regularly violating human rights unless overruled by national security or humanitarian imperatives.  According to the State Department, human rights are currently pursued through “bilateral diplomacy, multilateral engagement, foreign assistance, reporting and public outreach, and economic sanctions.”  In contrast, discussions around climate change have primarily focused on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), at least for the United States.

As part of an upcoming Request for Proposals expected to be released in early June, USIP seeks to identify important areas for exploration and innovation in identifying new diplomatic and development pathways to achieving the Paris Agreement objectives.  Through this process, USIP/CEC will prioritize strategic areas with solid potential for applied research and/or innovative exploration that can best contribute actionable pathways to current policy discussions.  USIP expects the upcoming Request for Proposals to provide research and innovative thinking that will guide further workshopping of these ideas among an expert community and identification of the most promising options for diplomatic and development pathways to achieve the Paris Agreement objectives.  While the d