The Paris Accord and the Tragedy of the Commons

The magazine, Psychology Today, has an article on the psychology of the Paris Accord the tragedy of the (Bostonian) Commons. The author, Glenn Geher, discusses the “selfish gene’’ in relation to the economy in terms of competitive advantage.

The Paris Accord is a mechanism for developed nations to provide resources to developing nations to work toward renewable and sustainable energy options and innovations. The agreement, within the United Nations Framewok Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to 2020, was signed in Paris on 12 December 2015 by 195 countries (148 of them have ratified it). Nicaragua and Syria were the only two countries that did not sign the agreement. 

The Paris Accord was part of te UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015 (I was there!).The Paris Accord looks to the future in a non-selfish manner, says the article.

The Tragedy of the Commons stems from a park of common land in Boston, America. It was a communual area where people could graze their cattle. But, as everyone could see how many head of cattle each other had, they became competitive and wanted to have more cows than their neighbours.

The article discusses short-term gains at the cost of long-term losses. In other words, the future generation will work out what is best in the future, while the current generation works out what is best for them - now. Geher says that the natural tendency of humans was originally to be selfish and to look after themselves, as individuals, and their direct families and communities, rather than the greater good on a wider level. Over centuries, people put aside their selfish ways for the greater good of all (or most). People have to learn to be ‘’other-oriented.’’

By signing the Paris Accord, ‘’the large majority of developed nations in the world are demonstrating an understanding of the (Bostonian) Tragedy of the Commons – an understanding that policies that constrain immediate and short-term gains may have the capacity to benefit everyone in a long-term and global way.’’ In summary, all but two UNFCCC countries recognise that doing something about the environment now, within a universally global mechanism, may benefit everyone in the future.

^{https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/201706/psychology-the-greater-good-and-the-paris-acccord}

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).