Sustainable Efforts on Global Governance Expected
November 29, 2021
About the author:
Wang Zaibang, Senior Fellow of Taihe Institute, Expert on International Issues and World Economic Issues
This November is marked by big events, such as G20, COP26, APEC, the China-US Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s, and the China-U.S. presidential virtual meeting, all concerning global governance in one way or another.
Against the background of the most serious systematic crises like those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the power shifts in world politics unprecedented over the past 100 years, and weather extremes linked to climate change, sustainable efforts are greatly needed and are highly encouraging as they are often regarded as a sunbeam shining through the dark clouds.
It is reasonable for us to be optimistic about global governance in the coming decades, especially in dealing with climate change. There are three main reasons for this:
1. A stronger sense of crisis. The fact that these efforts were made in the face of systematic crises shows that there has been a strong sense of crisis on the part of the international community.
2. Achievements in utilizing new energy. Over the past two decades from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Climate Accord, a lot of progress has been made in terms of the development and utilization of new energy in many countries. This has laid a solid foundation for future efforts to address major problems facing all mankind.
3. Effective leadership of major powers. The responsible actions taken by major powers, especially those by China and the U.S., were broadly appreciated by the rest of the world. The pledges and road maps made by both countries in the Joint Glasgow Declaration were considered substantive and feasible. The announcement was cited by some media as pleasant and warmly welcomed by world leaders. “We need to......work together......especially on vital global issues like climate change,” US president Joe Biden responded clearly during the virtual meeting to the proposal advanced by Chinese President Xi Jinping that a sound and steady China-U.S. relationship is required for advancing the two countries’ respective development and for safeguarding a peaceful and stable international environment, including finding effective responses to global challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]
For all this, however, there also exists a lot of skepticism about the sustainability of the efforts made by the international community on global governance. These doubts largely derive from the existence of negative factors in ways as follows:
1. Cold War Mentality. There are some politicians and scholars who tend to focus exclusively on the geopolitical, ideological, and power rivalries among major countries. They care about the narrow national interests much more than the wider interests of the international community. Some of them are self-absorbed in launching a so-called new Cold War against their proclaimed adversaries.
2. Lack of Policy Continuity. The political regimes and mechanisms in some countries cast a shadow on the potential of further achievement in global governance because some of the newly elected leaders in the West tend to lay aside or completely abandon the policies and commitments made by their predecessors. In other words, we might find the sustainability of efforts on global governance discounted by the changes of government regimes in some countries. For example, the official withdrawal of the United States under the Donald Trump administration from the Paris Agreement to fight climate change in 2020 is still alive in our memory. And since he left the White House, Donald Trump has been busy preparing for his return in 2024. Nobody could be sure if he will win the next presidential election and withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement thereafter.
3. Inertia of Geopolitics. The aspirations for national geopolitical interests and the strategic inertia of national security inevitably obstruct international cooperation required for effective global governance among the countries with geopolitical competitions in particular. This situation exists among the major countries at the global level as well as those at the regional level. This also means that developed countries would reluctantly accept the rising influence of new economies and work together with the latter. It is reported that the United States falls into a dilemma as it tries to achieve its climate pledges while banning imports of solar-power equipment from China because the ban “creates pressure on the ability of utilities to get modules or to get them at the right price.”[2]
4. The West Paying Lip Service to Climate Action. The performance records of the developed countries are not as satisfactory as expected. So far, they haven’t acted on the pledge they made at the Copenhagen Conference in 2009 to provide assistance of 100 billion USD to the developing countries for energy saving and emission reduction. Therefore, it would be difficult for anyone to believe that these countries could do much better than before.
In order to keep the efforts on global governance sustainable, special and further endeavors are needed on some fronts. These include:
1. Intensifying the sense of human destiny community. This means the social and political elites need to be educated with a sense of urgency. They must realize that the crises facing human beings today are global, huge in scale, systematic, and complicated. No country could fight by itself against them. No one could stay out of trouble as well. All countries are in the same boat. Global governance itself is just like mending the fold after the sheep is lost. It would work only if all countries and governments further raise their awareness of the whole world being one community with a shared destiny.
2. More positive role of major countries. It must be underlined that big powers at the global and regional levels should play a more positive role in global governance. On the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, every country has its corresponding responsibilities. For example, developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, as the forerunner of the industrial revolution and carbon emission, should take the lead in emission reduction and provide financial assistance to developing countries in this regard. On the other hand, regional major powers and regional new economies, in particular, could contribute much more to global governance issues such as regional peace-keeping, anti-terrorism, and economic cooperation. The major powers on the global level, like China and the United States, should take the lead in setting up a schedule for global governance and take broad responsibilities.
3. Effective supervision over the fulfillment of commitments. The role of NGOs should be considered in this regard. It is possible and would be constructive to set up a platform to share information among the parties about the performance of related countries, make comparative analyses, and put forward suggestions for improvement. By doing so, we could generate public opinion pressure and promote relevant countries to do as expected.
4. Global governance over the artificial intelligence (AI) society. The development of the artificial intelligence technology should be put on the agenda of global governance. Increasing application of AI technology on issues that matter is the latest objective of technological development in the 21st century. Yet, as the AI technology began to change the structures and ways of our economies, societies, military forces, and governance, more and more scholars and experts have become aware that the rapid development of the technology could be a great challenge to the current social order and management, and that global governance of the world based on AI would be full of risks. Some kind of international cooperation among powerful think tanks should be encouraged to examine the ways of global governance in the era of AI. It might be helpful for maintaining the momentum of global governance by adding new issues such as AI management to the agenda, thus binding countries together in a joint effort to fight for a safer, more prosperous, and cleaner future for all humanities.
This article is from the November issue of TI Observer (TIO), which is a monthly publication devoted to bringing China and the rest of the world closer together by facilitating mutual understanding and promoting exchanges of views. If you are interested in knowing more about the November issue, please click here:
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