6. Climate governance Flashcards
What is the National Determine Contributions (NDC) approach?
- The Paris Agreement introduced the mechanism of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to achieve the temperature goal. NDCs are national action plans in which countries communicate their GHG reduction goals and associated instruments.
- NDCs submitted under the Paris Agreement to date do not add up to the required mitigation ambition to keep global mean temperatures below 2°C. The conclusion therefore must be that global institution building is a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective climate change governance.
What is the principle “common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC)?
- According to Pattberg and Widerberg (2017), the CBDR-RC requires industrialized countries to take the lead in mitigating climate change and assist developing countries with financial and technological resources for fulfilling the goals of the regime. The Convention operationalizes the CBDR-RC by dividing countries into three annexes: Annex 1 comprises developed countries and countries in transition; Annex 2 includes 24 OECD member-countries from Annex 1; and Non-Annex 1 lists developing countries.
Please explain what the main change in the 2015 Paris Agreement was compared to the earlier Kyoto protocol and provide your opinion about this change.
- Because the Paris agreement was not legally binding, it became voluntary. I think this is a negative development since this takes the urgency away from the issue of climate change.
What is the global climate change regime?
- A global climate regime is a global framework that aims at regulating the interaction of human activity with the global climate system, to mitigate global climate change. The framework for such a regime was developed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
- The global climate change regime is made up of norms, rules and decision-making procedures that guide the behaviour of actors in climate policy.
Describe how the Kyoto protocol came about and died a quiet death.
- First treaty negotiated under the UNFCCC
- Established internationally binding GHG emission reduction targets and timetables for countries
- Legally-binding
- It was adopted in 1997 in Kyoto. The Protocol called upon developed countries to reduce their GHG emissions by roughly 5% during the period 2008-2012 and provided a set of market-based mechanisms to ensure cost-efficient mitigation. The institutional design of the Kyoto Protocol had a top-down approach.
- Under the Kyoto Protocol, only Annex 1 countries had individual emission reduction targets ranging from -8% and +10%.
- Commodification of GHG emissions
- It makes a distinction between countries that had a responsibility to act based on their historic emissions and those that did not have such responsibility.
- The mitigation challenge shifted from being a problem produced by developed countries to one being co-produced by a number of fast-growing developing countries such as China and India.
- Implementation failed because big emitters like Russia, New Zealand and Japan didn’t renew their commitments
- This created a deadlock, further enhanced by the CBDR-RC principle and effectively prohibited any real progress in the negotiations for quite some time. Southern countries that first did not emit much, when they emitted more, used the CBDR-RC principle to defend themselves.
- Pattberg and Widerberg, 2017: at COP15 there was a breakdown in negotiations, and it was realised that a more flexible approach was needed.
What is the primary objective of the UNFCCC?
To stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. (UNFCCC, 1992)
Which institutional bodies does the COP have?
- The Bureau and the Permanent subsidiary bodies
- Ad Hoc working groups
- The Secretariat
How does the UNFCCC enforce compliance?
- There is no real way to enforce compliance to the protocols made by the UNFCCC.
Give an example of a minilateral institution.
G20 and G7.
What is the main message of Pattberg and Widerberg (2017)?
The climate change regime is a global framework that aims at regulating the interaction of human activity with the global climate system. This framework was developed by the UNFCCC, which is resulted in the Kyoto Protocol and the Conference of the Parties (COP).
What are multi-stakeholder partnerships? Give an example.
- These are networks among different societal actors, including governments, international organizations, companies, research institutions, and civil society organizations. The idea here is that if you put together different actors from different categories, you will be able to come up with creative solutions.
- Example: REN21 (61 actors working in renewable energy)
What are private standard-setting initiatives? Give an example.
- These are initiatives such as the voluntary carbon market, where buyers can purchase assurance for a certain amount of mitigated CO2 in the form of a certificate.
What is Transnational Climate Governance? Give an example.
- These are city networks and subnational administrative units that aim at mitigating and adapting to climate change.
- The embodiment of this trend is the many transnational municipal and regional networks created to unite cities and regions in their fight against climate change.
- Example: C40 (17 city networks addressing climate change)
What are the pros and cons of having so many institutions governing climate change?
- Cons: high transaction costs and duplication of efforts, coordination gaps, more powerful influence for powerful states.
- Pros: flexibility enables adaptation across different scales, opportunities for actors to cooperate, learn and experiment
- Also: having many regimes gives rise to the regime complex, which are fragmented with synergistic, cooperative or conflictive consequences (Pattberg and Widerberg, 2017)
