Rethinking Authority in Global Climate Governance: How Transnational Climate Initiatives Relate to the International Climate Regime

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-160
Author(s):  
Laura Iozzelli
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Climate Governance ◽  
International Climate

Filling in for Governments? The Role of the Private Actors in the International Climate Regime

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-28
Author(s):  
Charlotte Streck
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
State Actor ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Private Actors

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change abandons the Kyoto Protocol’s paradigm of binding emissions targets and relies instead on countries’ voluntary contributions. However, the Paris Agreement encourages not only governments but also sub-national governments, corporations and civil society to contribute to reaching ambitious climate goals. In a transition from the regulated architecture of the Kyoto Protocol to the open system of the Paris Agreement, the Agreement seeks to integrate non-state actors into the treaty-based climate regime. In 2014 the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Peru and France created the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (and launched the Global Climate Action portal). In December 2019, this portal recorded more than twenty thousand climate-commitments of private and public non-state entities, making the non-state venues of international climate meetings decisively more exciting than the formal negotiation space. This level engagement and governments’ response to it raises a flurry of questions in relation to the evolving nature of the climate regime and climate change governance, including the role of private actors as standard setters and the lack of accountability mechanisms for non-state actions. This paper takes these developments as occasion to discuss the changing role of private actors in the climate regime.

Climate Regime Building in a Changing World and China's Role in Global Climate Governance

2014 ◽  
Vol 02 (01) ◽  
pp. 1450002
Author(s):  
Jiahua PAN ◽  
Mou WANG
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Developing Country ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Small Island ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Climate Governance ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Governance Processes

In 2012, the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP18) of the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (hereinafter referred to as the Convention) in Doha concluded a package of results which included the second commitment period of the "Kyoto Protocol", ending the Bali Roadmap negotiating mandate (hereinafter referred to as the Bali mandate) after five years, and officially opening the intensive negotiations of Durban Platform. Compared to the "dual-track" negotiation under Bali mandate, Durban Platform mandate is on "one-track". But it does not mean that some parties' concerns and positions about "dual-track" have been adjusted. They are seeking a way to realize their needs in Durban Platform. Therefore, "one-track" negotiation on Durban Platform does not simplify problems, but presents problems intensively. At the beginning of Durban Platform mandate, whether to mandate the Durban Platform negotiations was controversial among developing countries, while after consultations, Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the emerging developing economies divided on main concerns, such as mitigation targets, legal forms, sources of finance mechanism, etc. In fact, AOSIS's position gradually converged with the European Union (EU). And EU and AOSIS became the most aggressive powers to promote the Durban Platform negotiations. The traditional North–South divergence is facing adjustment, and new powers are restructuring negotiations. The huge disparity of interest among parties hinders progress in the Durban Platform negotiations. Parties will continue to debate and seek consensus on the interpretation of the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", emission reduction models and targets, sources of finance mechanism, the legal form of the future agreement, etc. With the social and economic development, China is receiving growing attention in the international climate governance processes. China's status as a developing country is being questioned by some developed and developing countries. Rapid increase of China's foreign investment and aid attracts worldwide attention, which stimulates the voices and expectations for China to shift its role as a developing country to shoulder more international obligations. However, China should be clearly aware of the fact that China's power of discourse is still very limited and far from being a leader in the world in various fields, including the international climate governance processes. China's participation in global climate governance, no matter its role being passively changed by others or a voluntary shift, still needs to keep a low profile, strengthen its economy, balance rights and obligations, and commit according to capabilities.

scholarly journals A Polycentric Approach to Global Climate Governance

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel J. Dorsch ◽  
Christian Flachsland
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Efficient Design ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Climate Governance ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Global Mean Temperature ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Governance Architecture ◽  
Global Mean

As international climate negotiations under the UNFCCC have adopted the goal to limit the increase in global mean temperature to well below 2° C, a highly differentiated—but largely uncoordinated—global climate governance system has emerged. Although coordinated global collective action for mitigating climate change sufficiently to meet the 2°-C goal is still lacking, a multitude of multilateral, minilateral, transnational, national, subnational, and nonstate actors have emerged. This article offers a critical specification of the attempt by Elinor Ostrom and those influenced by her in the literature to conceptualize this climate governance reality as a polycentric approach. We claim that the concept of polycentricity offers high descriptive value for understanding the horizontal and vertical differentiations of current climate governance, and present systematic analysis of a polycentric approach to deliberately enhance the design of the emerging global climate governance architecture. To systematize the Ostromean literature on polycentric climate governance, we identify and specify four key features for climate mitigation governance and their related mechanisms: an emphasis on self-organization, a recognition of site-specific conditions, the facilitation of experimentation and learning, and the building of trust. After discussing objections to a polycentric approach, we conclude by tentatively evaluating its potential to enhance the effectiveness of climate mitigation, and identify central tasks for the efficient design of a polycentric global climate governance regime.

The Growing Recognition of Transnational Climate Governance Initiatives in the UN Climate Regime: Implications for Legal Scholarship

Climate Law ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 183-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Mai
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
National Level ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Climate Governance ◽  
Interstate Cooperation ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Transnational Climate Governance

The UN climate regime has served as the focal point for interstate cooperation on climate change in the political and legal domains for the last twenty-six years. However, since the lead-up to the Paris Agreement, the regime’s interstate elements have been complemented by an evolving transnational sphere of governance in which sub-national and non-state actors engage in voluntary cross-border initiatives. These initiatives serve two key functions: first, they facilitate and implement climate action at the sub-national level and in the private sector, and second, they promote transnational normative frameworks which require members to take active steps to address climate change. This article describes how the UN climate regime has developed to recognize transnational climate governance initiatives, and it reflects on the implications of this development for legal scholarship on international climate change law.

scholarly journals China’s Contribution and the Chinese Approach to Tackling Global Climate Change

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150018
Author(s):  
Ying CHEN ◽  
Mou WANG
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Energy Structure ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Climate Governance ◽  
Structure Adjustment ◽  
Governance Process ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Positive Results

China is one of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and has been actively promoting the multilateral global climate governance process. China has advanced its eco-civilization construction and the agenda for combating climate change in a coordinated manner, and delivered positive results. By studying and interpreting the guiding principles of President Xi Jinping’s important speeches at the Leaders Summit on Climate and the video summit between China, France and Germany, this paper goes over the basic thinking of China’s participation in international climate governance and the Chinese approach to tackling global climate change, and sums up China’s achievements in the fields such as transition to green and low-carbon development, energy structure adjustment, greenhouse gases control, the construction of national carbon market, as well as its contribution to tackling global climate change.

Experiments in EU Climate Governance: The Unfulfilled Potential of the Covenant of Mayors

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 122-142
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Domorenok ◽  
Giuseppe Acconcia ◽  
Lena Bendlin ◽  
Xira Ruiz Campillo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Sustainable Energy ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Climate Governance ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Significant Potential ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Experimentalist Governance

Over the last decade, a growing body of academic literature has reflected on how and under which conditions experiments in global climate governance lead to broader changes in rules, norms, and practices helping to meet the challenge of climate change. Drawing on the assumptions of the scholarship on experimentalist governance architectures, this article analyzes the effectiveness of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) as a comprehensive governance framework that enables the development and coordination of local policies for sustainable energy and climate through a range of joint instruments for recursive goal setting, monitoring, and benchmarking. Our findings illustrate the CoM’s significant potential in terms of both general political uptake and policy output, which could make of this program, if appropriately fine-tuned, a successful governance experiment contributing to building a more effective global climate regime.

scholarly journals Preparing the Playing Field. Climate Club Governance of the G20, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition and the Under2 Coalition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Unger ◽  
Sonja Thielges
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Climate Governance ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
International Climate

Abstract International climate policy is increasingly shaped by alternative forms of governance. Coalitions of national, subnational and/or non-state actors have the potential to address the global challenge of climate change beyond the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process. While initially such ‘clubs’ spurred hope that they could be an option to achieve climate action more effectively than the UNFCCC, more recently their role has been seen as preparing and orchestrating climate policy. In spite of its conceptual proliferation, literature on climate clubs stops short in examining practical evidence and conducting analyses beyond categorization and labelling of climate clubs. This article aims at contributing to filling this gap with a comparative perspective on three specific governance initiatives that act on different governance levels: The G20, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and the Under2 Coalition. What contribution do these club-like initiatives make to global climate governance and how does it relate to existing structures such as the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC process?Our paper applies central aspects of clubs research, namely membership, public goods, and the provision of additional benefits as an analytical framework to examine the three cases. We find that these club initiatives, though highly diverse in their origin and membership, make a similar contribution to international climate governance. Their largest contribution lies in preparing emissions reductions through raising awareness, orchestrating different actors and actions, and establishing a large cooperation network. They complement the UNFCCC and especially the Paris Agreement.

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