States, Sustainable Development, and Multilateral Environmental Agreements

Abstract

If the internet were a state, it would be the sixth largest consumer of energy and the seventh largest emitter of CO2 on the planet. Facing an ongoing climate change emergency, the collapse of biodiversity, and the depletion of resources, everyone must rethink their models. Within such a perspective, digital technology becomes much more than a technical tool as it allows us to develop new ways of working, of obtaining information, of acting and making new forms of mobilization, collaboration, and sharing possible. Facing such a major challenge, states have begun to mobilise their diplomatic efforts in the service of an ecological and social transition. But under what conditions? This chapter sheds light upon how multilateral environmental agreements seek to find a solution towards maintaining sustainable development and foreseeing a resource efficient economy.