Climate change as a global issue: VCE Politics Unit 3

What this dot point is asking

If your school studies climate change in Area of Study 1, you must apply every key knowledge item to it. The design says climate change demands an unprecedented level of cooperation and asks whether national interests prevail over solutions and how economic and political factors affect resolution. This page gives a structure and dated evidence. Check the latest developments before your assessment, because negotiations move quickly.

The answer

Short-term causes (last 10 years)

• Continued fossil fuel use. Energy systems in many states, including major emitters and major exporters, remained heavily tied to coal, oil and gas.
• Economic priorities. Governments weigh growth, jobs and energy security against rapid cuts. The cost of the transition falls unevenly.
• Political decisions. Policy swings after elections change commitments. The United States announced its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in January 2025 under the Trump administration.
• Gaps between pledges and policy. Nationally determined contributions have often fallen short of the temperature goals set in the Paris Agreement.

Interconnectedness

Emissions mix in one atmosphere, and supply chains and energy trade link producers and consumers. Impacts are unequal: low-lying Pacific states such as Tuvalu and Kiribati face existential risk from sea level rise while contributing little to emissions.

Responses of global actors

• States. Set national targets and policies. Australia, for example, announced a 2035 emissions target range in 2025 and has taken on a leading role in negotiations for COP31 as President of Negotiations, with Turkiye (Antalya) as host and president of the conference, an unusual split arrangement agreed at COP30.
• Regional groupings. The Pacific Islands Forum has made climate change the central regional security issue (the Boe Declaration of 2018 names it as the single greatest threat to the livelihoods and security of Pacific peoples).
• Institutions of global governance. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change runs the annual COP process. COP30 in Belem (November 2025) agreed to call for efforts to triple adaptation finance by 2035, and announced voluntary roadmaps on fossil fuel transition and deforestation, but a negotiated fossil fuel phase-out path was blocked.
• Non-state actors. Greenpeace and other NGOs campaign and litigate; corporations both invest in renewables and lobby; island communities and young people have taken legal action.

International law

The Paris Agreement (2015) sets temperature goals and a system of national pledges. In July 2025 the International Court of Justice, responding to a request driven by Vanuatu and supported by a coalition of Pacific states, issued an advisory opinion that states have obligations to protect the climate system and that failing to do so can be a wrongful act. It is not a binding judgment, but it strengthens legal arguments in later disputes.

Challenges and stability

Competing economic interests, finance disputes between wealthy and developing states, and political change within major emitters are the main obstacles. Consequences for stability include displacement pressure, strain on small island states' sovereignty and a growing role for legal and financial mechanisms.

Worked example

Question. To what extent have national interests prevailed over finding solutions to climate change?

Model answer outline. Thesis: to a large extent in the most contested areas, though not completely. Point 1: at COP30 oil-producing states blocked a fossil fuel roadmap from the main text, showing economic interests prevailing. Point 2: yet nearly all states still participate, agreed on adaptation finance goals, and the ICJ opinion shows legal momentum, so solutions have not been abandoned. Conclusion: national interests set the limits of cooperation but have not ended it.

Try this

Q1

Identify one short-term cause of climate change and one actor whose interests contribute to it. Model answer: Continued fossil fuel use; a state that depends on fossil fuel exports for revenue.

Q2

Explain why the ICJ's 2025 opinion matters although it is advisory. Model answer: It sets out authoritative statements of states' legal duties that can be used in diplomacy and courts, but it does not compel any state.

Q3

Evaluate the effectiveness of the UN climate process. Model answer: Strong participation and incremental agreements such as adaptation finance; limited because decisions need consensus and pledges are voluntary.