Climate governance
Encyclopedia
Climate governance is a concept used in political ecology
and environmental policy
. It encompasses the diplomacy, mechanisms and measures "aimed at steering social systems towards preventing, mitigating or adapting to the risks posed by climate change
". A definitive interpretation is complicated by the wide range of political and social science traditions (including comparative politics
, political economy
and multilevel governance) that are engaged in conceiving and analysing climate governance at different levels and across different arenas. In academia, climate governance has become the concern of geographers, anthropologists, economists and business studies
scholars.
In the past two decades a paradox has arisen between rising awareness about the causes and consequences of climate change
and an increasing concern that the issues that surround it represent an intractable problem.
Initially, climate change was approached as a global issue, and climate governance sought to address it on the international stage. This took the form of Multilateral Environmental Agreement
s (MEAs), beginning with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCC) in 1992. With the exception of the Kyoto Protocol
, international agreements between nations have been largely ineffective in achieving legally binding emissions cuts. This inertia on the international political stage contributed to alternative political narratives that called for more flexible, cost effective and participatory approaches to addressing the multifarious problems of climate change. These narratives relate to the increasing diversity of methods that are being developed and deployed across the field of climate governance.
(UNFCCC) in Rio. This has been termed “the first major milestone in the history of climate diplomacy”. The conference addressed nations from across the globe and sought to emulate the diplomatic success of the Montreal Protocol in phasing out ozone-depleting chemicals.
As climate governance has continued to develop on the international stage, a string of transnational public and public-private actor networks have sought to implement its aims within their own arena, for example the C40
, the Global Cities Covenant on Climate (also known as the 'Mexico City Pact'), and the Cities for Climate Protection Programme (CCPP). The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNFCED) in 1992 was a 'trigger' for this process. Existing regional and local networks adopted its emissions reduction targets and began to consider how they could be achieved at a local level. An example is ICLEI ‘Local Governments for Sustainability’
that adopted the convention's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as part of its commitment to link local action to internationally agreed-upon goals. Under the umbrella of internationally agreed climate targets, innovative climate governance methods have also developed that seek to reduce emissions using market based mechanisms, for example the 'cap and trade'
mechanism.
Thus, while the interstate process of treaty making continues to play a key part in mitigating anthropogenic climate change, it now exists as part of a wider tapestry of private and public climate governance initiatives that operate at multiple scales.
is a socio-economic and political division. Applied to climate governance, the divide separates 'developed' northern countries that have historically emitted disproportionately high emissions from 'undeveloped' southern countries that have emitted considerably less emissions. The divide has also been used to highlight differences in vulnerability to climate change (the global south is considered more vulnerable due to a higher incident of natural disasters, less developed infrastructure and less wealth). These divides have fed into all issues of international climate governance, bringing with them questions of social justice
and equity that remain current today. A criticism of the divide is that it simplifies an increasingly complex landscape. In recent years, international trade, free capital flows and the development of some southern nations (for example China
and India
) have redefined global socio-economic and political relations.
research, remote sensing
and carbon accounting
techniques have revealed that tropical deforestation accounts for 15% of global carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, it has become a viable concern of climate governance. Previous to its quantification, tropical deforestation had been expressly excluded from the Kyoto Protocol.
plays an important role in the implementation of climate governance policy. There are two main reasons for this. First, where climate governance necessitates change at a behavioural level, there is a need to educate the public in order to achieve this (for example reducing car travel). Where successful, this offers the possibility that communities can become self governing, for example choosing to drive less.
Second, effective community engagement ensures that climate governance policies are relevant to the communities in which they are intended to be applied. This necessitates a process of ‘bottom up learning’, as ideas are passed up from a local to national level. This approach has been identified as the normative framework of ‘learning organisations’ and popular within environmental organisations that seek to encourage grassroots development
over the past two decades. Thus, targets set at international climate governance conventions have been achieved through the application of markets (for example the EU-ETS), public-private partnerships (for example “type II partnerships”) and the self regulation of industry (for example the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership).
Significantly, the Kyoto Protocol offers participating countries three market based mechanisms as means to meeting their binding emissions reduction targets. These are 'emissions trading
' (known as “the carbon market"), 'the clean development mechanism
' (CDM) and 'joint implementation
' (JI). The three Kyoto market mechanisms have been identified as forms of carbon market governance, a market based form of climate governance. Carbon market governance allows carbon emissions in one place to be exchanged with emissions reductions in another. It relies on measuring, monitoring and verification techniques to commensurate carbon, allowing seemingly disparate activities to appear on the same balance sheet.
The largest working example of carbon market governance to date is the EU-ETS
. It is a multinational emissions trading
scheme. Advocates of this mechanism cite its focus on improving efficiency, reducing carbon where it is most cost efficient to do so. Its critics identify that it has so far allowed participating industries to profit from excess carbon credits while having little or no effect on their carbon emissions.
To distinguish between types of climate governance networks currently in existence, it is useful to separate components into sub-categories. Studies into climate governance have distinguished between modes of governance (self-governing, governing through enabling, governing by provision and governing by authority), types of actors and political scale of governance. For the purpose of this section they are separated according to the type of actors involved – ‘public climate governance partnerships’, ‘public-private climate governance’ partnerships and ‘private climate governance partnerships’. 'Modes of governance' and ‘scale’ (e.g. supranational, national
, regional
, and local
) represent equally viable alternatives to this categorisation. While none of these approaches are definitive (each approach exhibits overlaps), defining partnerships according to participating actor is here considered to draw the clearer distinction.
in 1978 as opposed to the more mitigation-focused approaches which have generally dominated efforts thus far. Adaptive governance “refers to the ways in which institutional arrangements evolve to satisfy the needs and desires of the community in a changing environment”.
Several theorists believe that it is within a society’s capacity to adapt to the gradual climate changes we are experiencing currently, and those felt in the future. Therefore, utilizing adaptive governance is perhaps the ideal solution as its experimental approach allows newly created institutions to “experiment with different solutions and learn from them in order to adapt and transform". The role of these institutions is to then formulate policies to strengthen the resilience between complex climate and social systems, and therefore the system’s ability to adapt and remain stable in the face of climate changes in the future.
In addition, institutions encourage communication between different levels of power (local, regional, national and international) to govern resources, whilst also engaging a broad set of stakeholders e.g. NGO’s
and the public. Therefore, the approach takes a predominantly ‘bottom up’ strategy, focusing on community-based actions. In terms of climate change this provides an alternative to the ‘top down’ IPCC
proceedings and world negotiations, which many perceive as having no effect in addressing climate issues.
Adaptive governance has been successfully implemented in a number of local society’s around the world in building their ability to adapt to climate change associated impacts such as extreme weather and altering plant biodiversities. Success has mainly been attributed to the fact that through adaptive governance, the social impact is dealt with locally to achieve a more effective result whilst still allowing communication to flow between low to high levels of command. For example Brunner & Lynch in 2010 studied how the Barrow community in Alaska successfully communicated with local and regional governments to develop adaptive strategies for minimizing extreme weather impacts.
in 2007 is that many adaptive governance systems have been implemented to build resilience to gradual changes but anthropogenic climate change could cause rapid alterations and so challenge the robustness of the whole governance system. Finally, using this experimental approach for such a precarious and influential system as our climate has been considered too risky, especially as Earth is potentially nearing the 2 degree global warming tipping point
.
Even with these limitations, adaptive governance is evidently a successful strategy at local scale in addressing unique climate change impacts on social systems. Therefore, the idea of focusing on and monitoring localized problems to achieve a global goal may well be highly influential as the impacts of climate change become increasingly widespread and complex.
expire in 2012. While the more recent Copenhagen Accord
endorses these commitments, it does not commit signatory countries to agree on a binding successor. Future global consensus will require the respective roles of developed and developing countries to be determined according to their relative responsibilities and capabilities. Furthermore, all participating countries will need to agree that resultant legal architecture is fair and therefore acceptable. A key limitation in achieving this is the refusal of the United States to commit to legally binding negotiations. The re-engagement of the United States in this field has been cited as a potential future "trigger" that could lead to multilateral legally binding emissions reductions in GHG emissions.
Movement at a national level could also stimulate multilateral negotiations as some countries look set to press ahead with legally binding emissions cuts. On 17 May 2011, the UK Government introduced the Fourth Carbon Budget which aims to "set an ambitious target in law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions . . . and build momentum toward a legally global climate change deal".
In the absence of a multilateral emissions reduction agreement, the future direction of climate governance remains uncertain. Supranational and national legislation could legislate the continuation of market based emissions reduction mechanisms, for example the EU-ETS
. The increased agency of non-state actors in the realm of global governance and the growth of public and public-private networks offer the potential for the global climate arena to develop at a sub-national level. Recent attempts to 'territorialise' the carbon cycle seek to frame climate change as a local rather than global problem by rearticulating the global carbon cycle as a combination of national 'sinks'.
Political ecology
Political ecology is the study of the relationships between political, economic and social factors with environmental issues and changes. Political ecology differs from apolitical ecological studies by politicizing environmental issues and phenomena....
and environmental policy
Environmental policy
Environmental policy is any [course of] action deliberately taken [or not taken] to manage human activities with a view to prevent, reduce, or mitigate harmful effects on nature and natural resources, and ensuring that man-made changes to the environment do not have harmful effects on...
. It encompasses the diplomacy, mechanisms and measures "aimed at steering social systems towards preventing, mitigating or adapting to the risks posed by climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
". A definitive interpretation is complicated by the wide range of political and social science traditions (including comparative politics
Comparative politics
Comparative politics is a subfield of political science, characterized by an empirical approach based on the comparative method. Arend Lijphart argues that comparative politics does not have a substantive focus in itself, but rather a methodological one: it focuses on "the how but does not specify...
, political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
and multilevel governance) that are engaged in conceiving and analysing climate governance at different levels and across different arenas. In academia, climate governance has become the concern of geographers, anthropologists, economists and business studies
Business studies
Business studies is an academic subject taught at higher level in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, as well as at university level in many countries...
scholars.
In the past two decades a paradox has arisen between rising awareness about the causes and consequences of climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
and an increasing concern that the issues that surround it represent an intractable problem.
Initially, climate change was approached as a global issue, and climate governance sought to address it on the international stage. This took the form of Multilateral Environmental Agreement
Multilateral Environmental Agreement
A multilateral environmental agreement is a legally binding agreement between three or more states relating to the environment. They are predominantly produced by the United Nations...
s (MEAs), beginning with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14, 1992...
(UNFCC) in 1992. With the exception of the Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
, international agreements between nations have been largely ineffective in achieving legally binding emissions cuts. This inertia on the international political stage contributed to alternative political narratives that called for more flexible, cost effective and participatory approaches to addressing the multifarious problems of climate change. These narratives relate to the increasing diversity of methods that are being developed and deployed across the field of climate governance.
Climate Governance Timeline
Background
The development of climate governance can be traced firstly to climate diplomacy between inter-state actors and secondly to the development of transnational networks and non-state actors. The timeline above highlights key points throughout this process. The point of ‘creation’ is difficult to determine exactly, however a definitive point in its history is the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14, 1992...
(UNFCCC) in Rio. This has been termed “the first major milestone in the history of climate diplomacy”. The conference addressed nations from across the globe and sought to emulate the diplomatic success of the Montreal Protocol in phasing out ozone-depleting chemicals.
As climate governance has continued to develop on the international stage, a string of transnational public and public-private actor networks have sought to implement its aims within their own arena, for example the C40
Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
The Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, now officially known as the C40 is a group of cities working to reduce urban carbon emissions and to adapt to climate change. It believes it has an important role to play as cities contain around 50% of the world population, consume 75% of the world's...
, the Global Cities Covenant on Climate (also known as the 'Mexico City Pact'), and the Cities for Climate Protection Programme (CCPP). The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNFCED) in 1992 was a 'trigger' for this process. Existing regional and local networks adopted its emissions reduction targets and began to consider how they could be achieved at a local level. An example is ICLEI ‘Local Governments for Sustainability’
ICLEI
ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, founded in 1990 as the 'International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives', is an international association of local governments and national and regional local government organizations that have made a commitment to sustainable development...
that adopted the convention's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as part of its commitment to link local action to internationally agreed-upon goals. Under the umbrella of internationally agreed climate targets, innovative climate governance methods have also developed that seek to reduce emissions using market based mechanisms, for example the 'cap and trade'
Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
mechanism.
Thus, while the interstate process of treaty making continues to play a key part in mitigating anthropogenic climate change, it now exists as part of a wider tapestry of private and public climate governance initiatives that operate at multiple scales.
North-South divide
The North-South divideNorth-South divide
The north–south divide is a socio-economic and political division that exists between the wealthy developed countries, known collectively as "the north", and the poorer developing countries , or "the south." Although most nations comprising the "North" are in fact located in the Northern Hemisphere ,...
is a socio-economic and political division. Applied to climate governance, the divide separates 'developed' northern countries that have historically emitted disproportionately high emissions from 'undeveloped' southern countries that have emitted considerably less emissions. The divide has also been used to highlight differences in vulnerability to climate change (the global south is considered more vulnerable due to a higher incident of natural disasters, less developed infrastructure and less wealth). These divides have fed into all issues of international climate governance, bringing with them questions of social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
and equity that remain current today. A criticism of the divide is that it simplifies an increasingly complex landscape. In recent years, international trade, free capital flows and the development of some southern nations (for example China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
) have redefined global socio-economic and political relations.
Climate Governance ‘in perspective'
Climate governance has been identified as multi-scale, multi-actor and deeply embedded in our social and physical infrastructure:- Multiple scale: Climate governance takes place and has policies enacted across diverse levels and spaces at each scale of governance. This includes supranational, nationNationA nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
al, regionalRégionalRégional Compagnie Aérienne Européenne, or Régional for short, is a subsidiary airline wholly owned by Air France which connects hubs at Paris, Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, and Bordeaux to 49 airports in Europe. The airline operates in Air France livery, retaining its name in small titles and logo on...
and localLocal governmentLocal government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...
scales. The interaction between these arenas raises important questions about where the power and authority for governing climate change lie. Traditional interpretations of ‘top down’ authority do not necessarily apply in the realm of climate governance which exhibits a far more complex landscape. Local initiatives can be networked horizontally, for example the C40Large Cities Climate Leadership GroupThe Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, now officially known as the C40 is a group of cities working to reduce urban carbon emissions and to adapt to climate change. It believes it has an important role to play as cities contain around 50% of the world population, consume 75% of the world's...
, while some national interests feed back into international agreements. - Multi actor: The fragmented and blurred roles of state and non-state actors raises ambiguities concerning their relative roles in the realm of climate governance. Non-state actors play critical roles in shaping the positions adopted by national governments in relation to international climate agreements, for example the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. These actors include scientific, business, lobbyists and community actors. Until the late 1990s, their influence was considered to be ‘latent’, existing outside common governance arenas. More recently, that role has been reassessed as private actors offer new sites and mechanisms that seek to address climate change.
- Embedded: The involvement of non-state actors in climate governance is partly a reflection upon the deeply embedded social and economic nature of many of the processes that lead to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The difficulties in addressing climate change are compounded by the complex range of processes that involve GHG emissions across the planet at all scales. Furthermore, decisions reached in other domains, including trade, energy security and employment inevitably impact on the efforts of climate governance to address anthropogenic climate change.
Role of science
Particular scientific and technical practices shape and inform our understanding of climate change and in doing so define how environmental problems are defined as objects of governance. For example, recent advances in carbon cycleCarbon cycle
The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth...
research, remote sensing
Remote sensing
Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon, without making physical contact with the object. In modern usage, the term generally refers to the use of aerial sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Earth by means of propagated signals Remote sensing...
and carbon accounting
Carbon accounting
Carbon accounting is the accounting process undertaken to measure the amount of carbon dioxide equivalents that will not be released into the atmosphere as a result of Flexible Mechanisms projects under the Kyoto Protocol. These projects thus include renewable energy projects and biomass, forage...
techniques have revealed that tropical deforestation accounts for 15% of global carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, it has become a viable concern of climate governance. Previous to its quantification, tropical deforestation had been expressly excluded from the Kyoto Protocol.
Community engagement in climate governance
Community engagementCommunity engagement
Community engagement refers to the process by which community benefit organizations and individuals build ongoing, permanent relationships for the purpose of applying a collective vision for the benefit of a community...
plays an important role in the implementation of climate governance policy. There are two main reasons for this. First, where climate governance necessitates change at a behavioural level, there is a need to educate the public in order to achieve this (for example reducing car travel). Where successful, this offers the possibility that communities can become self governing, for example choosing to drive less.
Second, effective community engagement ensures that climate governance policies are relevant to the communities in which they are intended to be applied. This necessitates a process of ‘bottom up learning’, as ideas are passed up from a local to national level. This approach has been identified as the normative framework of ‘learning organisations’ and popular within environmental organisations that seek to encourage grassroots development
Market Based Climate Governance
The history of climate governance has seen increasing emphasis placed on market based solutions, or “flexibility mechanisms”. This is a development that complements, rather than replaces traditional ‘command and control’ regulation. The decision to favour market mechanisms has been identified as inevitable given the growth in popularity of neoliberalismNeoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
over the past two decades. Thus, targets set at international climate governance conventions have been achieved through the application of markets (for example the EU-ETS), public-private partnerships (for example “type II partnerships”) and the self regulation of industry (for example the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership).
Significantly, the Kyoto Protocol offers participating countries three market based mechanisms as means to meeting their binding emissions reduction targets. These are 'emissions trading
Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
' (known as “the carbon market"), 'the clean development mechanism
Clean Development Mechanism
The Clean Development Mechanism is one of the "flexibility" mechanisms defined in the Kyoto Protocol . It is defined in Article 12 of the Protocol, and is intended to meet two objectives: to assist parties not included in Annex I in achieving sustainable development and in contributing to the...
' (CDM) and 'joint implementation
Joint Implementation
Joint implementation is one of three flexibility mechanisms set forth in the Kyoto Protocol to help countries with binding greenhouse gas emissions targets meet their obligations. JI is set forth in Article 6 of the Kyoto Protocol...
' (JI). The three Kyoto market mechanisms have been identified as forms of carbon market governance, a market based form of climate governance. Carbon market governance allows carbon emissions in one place to be exchanged with emissions reductions in another. It relies on measuring, monitoring and verification techniques to commensurate carbon, allowing seemingly disparate activities to appear on the same balance sheet.
The largest working example of carbon market governance to date is the EU-ETS
European Union Emission Trading Scheme
The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme also known as the European Union Emissions Trading System, was the first large emissions trading scheme in the world. It was launched in 2005 to combat climate change and is a major pillar of EU climate policy...
. It is a multinational emissions trading
Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
scheme. Advocates of this mechanism cite its focus on improving efficiency, reducing carbon where it is most cost efficient to do so. Its critics identify that it has so far allowed participating industries to profit from excess carbon credits while having little or no effect on their carbon emissions.
Transnational networks of climate governance
In addition to the efforts of nation-states to coordinate internationally on matters of climate governance, nation-states, non-state actors and private actors are becoming increasingly involved in multiple parallel climate governance partnerships on a global scale. These actors include cities, regions, NGOs and corporations. Their increasingly prominent involvement has led scholars to reassess the nature of power in climate governance as well as the relationship between public and private authorityTo distinguish between types of climate governance networks currently in existence, it is useful to separate components into sub-categories. Studies into climate governance have distinguished between modes of governance (self-governing, governing through enabling, governing by provision and governing by authority), types of actors and political scale of governance. For the purpose of this section they are separated according to the type of actors involved – ‘public climate governance partnerships’, ‘public-private climate governance’ partnerships and ‘private climate governance partnerships’. 'Modes of governance' and ‘scale’ (e.g. supranational, national
Central government
A central government also known as a national government, union government and in federal states, the federal government, is the government at the level of the nation-state. The structure of central governments varies from institution to institution...
, regional
Régional
Régional Compagnie Aérienne Européenne, or Régional for short, is a subsidiary airline wholly owned by Air France which connects hubs at Paris, Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, and Bordeaux to 49 airports in Europe. The airline operates in Air France livery, retaining its name in small titles and logo on...
, and local
Local government
Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...
) represent equally viable alternatives to this categorisation. While none of these approaches are definitive (each approach exhibits overlaps), defining partnerships according to participating actor is here considered to draw the clearer distinction.
'Public' climate governance partnerships
- Multilateral Environmental AgreementMultilateral Environmental AgreementA multilateral environmental agreement is a legally binding agreement between three or more states relating to the environment. They are predominantly produced by the United Nations...
s (MEA's): MEA's can take the form of non-legally binding declarations, or legally binding treaties. Treaties between nations include framework conventions like the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, signed at the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeThe United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14, 1992...
(UNFCCC). There are four main criticisms of MEAs. First, their policies have been weakened by successive compromises between bargaining nations. Second, where one nation refuses to participate (as occurred with the United States withdrawal from KyotoKyoto ProtocolThe Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
), they can still benefit from measures taken by participating nations (for example measures to reduce their GHG emissions), even though they have not had to take action themselves Third, developing country governments lack the capacity to shape and influence negotiating processes, giving developed countries disproportionate power to influence proceedings . Fourth, the number of countries involved in international meetings inevitably leads to conflicts of interest between nations that can make it difficult to reach legally binding agreements. - Global city and regional partnerships: Beyond the local scale, the success of urban climate governance depends on horizontal and vertical collaboration between regions and cities. Global city and regional partnerships have been identified as showing particular promise. These can be built into public non-state networks, for example the C40Large Cities Climate Leadership GroupThe Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, now officially known as the C40 is a group of cities working to reduce urban carbon emissions and to adapt to climate change. It believes it has an important role to play as cities contain around 50% of the world population, consume 75% of the world's...
network, the Global Cities Covenant on Climate, the Cities for Climate Protection Programme (CCPP) and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. Through these networks, mitigationMitigation of global warmingClimate change mitigation is action to decrease the intensity of radiative forcing in order to reduce the potential effects of global warming. Mitigation is distinguished from adaptation to global warming, which involves acting to tolerate the effects of global warming...
measures and adaptationAdaptationAn adaptation in biology is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection. An adaptation refers to both the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the adaptation....
strategies can be adopted by participating cities worldwide. A criticism of global city and regional partnerships is that their exclusive nature limits influence to participating cities and regions which risks drawing resources away from less powerful city and regional actors.
‘Public-private’ climate governance partnerships
- Type II Partnerships: Type II Partnerships are public-private initiatives between public, private and civic organisations that are the outcome of international treaties. The ‘type II’ label serves to contrast them against ‘type I’ partnerships which are the multilateral agreements that more traditionally arise from international treaties. An example of a Type II partnership is the (approximately) 300 partnerships upon which the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 was based.
- Vertical ‘supply chainSupply chainA supply chain is a system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to...
’ public-private partnerships: These are partnerships that seek to implement internationally agreed outcomes such as the Millenium Development Goals through supply chain partnerships. This is achieved firstly by facilitating and coordinating interaction between private stakeholders and secondly through constructive engagement between public and private stakeholders regarding the development and delivery of government policies, regulations, programmes and schemes. An example is the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes in the UK.
'Private' climate governance partnerships
- Self regulating private networks: In recent years, transnational corporations have established partnerships through private networks in a variety of schemes that encourage self regulation of industry. These partnerships are often coordinated by NGOs and funded by government. Existing networks include the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership and the Carbon Disclosure ProjectCarbon Disclosure ProjectThe Carbon Disclosure Project is an organisation based in the United Kingdom which works with shareholders and corporations to disclose the greenhouse gas emissions of major corporations....
. Both of these evidence the importance of NGOs in bringing market actors into the realm of environmental climate governance. Self regulating private networks have been identified as having the potential to lead to behavioural change that could lead to successful global climate governance. At present however, the networks themselves remain largely unregulated and have been criticised for lacking legitimacy, accountability and transparency.
The use of adaptive governance in climate governance
A relatively new approach to governing climate impacts upon social systems is to use the flexible technique of adaptive governance, introduced by HollingC. S. Holling
Crawford Stanley Holling, OC is a Canadian ecologist, and Emeritus Eminent Scholar and Professor in Ecological Sciences at the University of Florida. Holling is one of the conceptual founders of ecological economics....
in 1978 as opposed to the more mitigation-focused approaches which have generally dominated efforts thus far. Adaptive governance “refers to the ways in which institutional arrangements evolve to satisfy the needs and desires of the community in a changing environment”.
Several theorists believe that it is within a society’s capacity to adapt to the gradual climate changes we are experiencing currently, and those felt in the future. Therefore, utilizing adaptive governance is perhaps the ideal solution as its experimental approach allows newly created institutions to “experiment with different solutions and learn from them in order to adapt and transform". The role of these institutions is to then formulate policies to strengthen the resilience between complex climate and social systems, and therefore the system’s ability to adapt and remain stable in the face of climate changes in the future.
In addition, institutions encourage communication between different levels of power (local, regional, national and international) to govern resources, whilst also engaging a broad set of stakeholders e.g. NGO’s
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
and the public. Therefore, the approach takes a predominantly ‘bottom up’ strategy, focusing on community-based actions. In terms of climate change this provides an alternative to the ‘top down’ IPCC
IPCC
IPCC may refer to:*Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the United Nations*Independent Police Complaints Commission, of England and Wales*Irish Peatland Conservation Council...
proceedings and world negotiations, which many perceive as having no effect in addressing climate issues.
Adaptive governance has been successfully implemented in a number of local society’s around the world in building their ability to adapt to climate change associated impacts such as extreme weather and altering plant biodiversities. Success has mainly been attributed to the fact that through adaptive governance, the social impact is dealt with locally to achieve a more effective result whilst still allowing communication to flow between low to high levels of command. For example Brunner & Lynch in 2010 studied how the Barrow community in Alaska successfully communicated with local and regional governments to develop adaptive strategies for minimizing extreme weather impacts.
Critique
Several limitations have arisen when applying the adaptive governance strategy to climate governance. Firstly, when applied at local level, adaptive governance is evidently successful; however, Evans (2011) found problems when applying such techniques over a large scale. For example, the technique could have limited success when adapting to a national or international problem as the system may become too complex. A further weakness highlighted by OstromElinor Ostrom
Elinor Ostrom is an American political economist. She was awarded the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which she shared with Oliver E. Williamson, for "her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons." She was the first, and to date, the only woman to win the prize in...
in 2007 is that many adaptive governance systems have been implemented to build resilience to gradual changes but anthropogenic climate change could cause rapid alterations and so challenge the robustness of the whole governance system. Finally, using this experimental approach for such a precarious and influential system as our climate has been considered too risky, especially as Earth is potentially nearing the 2 degree global warming tipping point
Tipping point (climatology)
A climate tipping point is a point when global climate changes from one stable state to another stable state, in a similar manner to a wine glass tipping over. After the tipping point has been passed, a transition to a new state occurs...
.
Even with these limitations, adaptive governance is evidently a successful strategy at local scale in addressing unique climate change impacts on social systems. Therefore, the idea of focusing on and monitoring localized problems to achieve a global goal may well be highly influential as the impacts of climate change become increasingly widespread and complex.
Future climate governance
The core commitments of the Kyoto ProtocolKyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
expire in 2012. While the more recent Copenhagen Accord
Copenhagen Accord
The Copenhagen Accord is a document that delegates at the 15th session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to "take note of" at the final plenary on 18 December 2009....
endorses these commitments, it does not commit signatory countries to agree on a binding successor. Future global consensus will require the respective roles of developed and developing countries to be determined according to their relative responsibilities and capabilities. Furthermore, all participating countries will need to agree that resultant legal architecture is fair and therefore acceptable. A key limitation in achieving this is the refusal of the United States to commit to legally binding negotiations. The re-engagement of the United States in this field has been cited as a potential future "trigger" that could lead to multilateral legally binding emissions reductions in GHG emissions.
Movement at a national level could also stimulate multilateral negotiations as some countries look set to press ahead with legally binding emissions cuts. On 17 May 2011, the UK Government introduced the Fourth Carbon Budget which aims to "set an ambitious target in law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions . . . and build momentum toward a legally global climate change deal".
In the absence of a multilateral emissions reduction agreement, the future direction of climate governance remains uncertain. Supranational and national legislation could legislate the continuation of market based emissions reduction mechanisms, for example the EU-ETS
European Union Emission Trading Scheme
The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme also known as the European Union Emissions Trading System, was the first large emissions trading scheme in the world. It was launched in 2005 to combat climate change and is a major pillar of EU climate policy...
. The increased agency of non-state actors in the realm of global governance and the growth of public and public-private networks offer the potential for the global climate arena to develop at a sub-national level. Recent attempts to 'territorialise' the carbon cycle seek to frame climate change as a local rather than global problem by rearticulating the global carbon cycle as a combination of national 'sinks'.