Non-state actors in hybrid global climate governance: justice, legitimacy, and effectiveness in a post-Paris era

In this article, we outline the multifaceted roles played by non-state actors within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and place this within the wider landscape of global climate governance. In doing so, we look at both the formation and aftermath of the 2015 Paris Agreement. We argue that the Paris Agreement cements an architecture of hybrid multilateralism that enables and constrains non-state actor participation in global climate governance. We flesh out the constitutive features of hybrid multilateralism, enumerate the multiple positions non-state actors may employ under these conditions, and contend that non-state actors will play an increasingly important role in the post-Paris era. To substantiate these claims, we assess these shifts and ask how non-state actors may affect the legitimacy, justice, and effectiveness of the Paris Agreement

Building a Social Mandate for Climate Action: Lessons from COVID-19

The COVID-19 imposed lockdown has led to a number of temporary environmental side effects (reduced global emissions, cleaner air, less noise), that the climate community has aspired to achieve over a number of decades. However, these benefits have been achieved at a massive cost to welfare and the economy. This commentary draws lessons from the COVID-19 crisis for climate change. It discusses whether there are more sustainable ways of achieving these benefits, as part of a more desirable, low carbon resilient future, in a more planned, inclusive and less disruptive way. In order to achieve this, we argue for a clearer social contract between citizens and the state. We discuss how COVID-19 has demonstrated that behaviours can change abruptly, that these changes come at a cost, that we need a ‘social mandate’ to ensure these changes remain in the long-term, and that science plays an important role in informing this process. We suggest that deliberative engagement mechanisms, such as citizens’ assemblies and juries, could be a powerful way to build a social mandate for climate action post-COVID-19. This would enable behaviour changes to become more accepted, embedded and bearable in the long-term and provide the basis for future climate action

Politicizing food security governance through participation: opportunities and opposition

Since the 2007/08 food price crisis there has been a proliferation of multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs) devoted to bringing diverse perspectives together to inform and improve food security policy. While much of the literature highlights the positive contributions to be gained from an opening-up of traditionally state-led processes, there is a strong critique emerging to show that, in many instances, MSPs have de-politicizing effects. In this paper, we scrutinize MSPs in relation to de-politicization. We argue that re-building sustainable and just food systems requires alternative visions that can best be made visible through politicized policy processes. Focusing on three key conditions of politicization, we examine the UN Committee on World Food Security as a MSP where we see a process of politicization playing out through the endorsement of the ‘most-affected’ principle, which is in turn being actively contested by traditionally powerful actors. We conclude that there is a need to implement and reinforce mechanisms that deliberately politicize participation in MSPs, notably by clearly distinguishing between states and other stakeholders, as well as between categories of non-state actors.</p

Informing UK governance of resilience to climate risks: improving the local evidence-base

International assessments of evidence on climate change (e.g. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC) or national climate change risk assessments (e.g. UK Climate Change Risk Assessment, CCRA) do not offer a sufficiently granular perspective on climate impacts to adequately inform governance of resilience to climate risks at the local level. Using an analysis of UK decision-makers managing and responding to heatwaves and flood risks, this paper argues how more robust local evidence is needed to inform decision-making regarding adaptation options for enhancing local resilience. We identify evidence gaps and issues relating to local climate change impacts, including sources and quality of evidence used, adequacy and accessibility of evidence available, ill-communicated evidence and conflicting or misused evidence. A lack of appreciation regarding how scientific evidence and personal judgement can mutually enhance the quality of decision-making underpins all of these gaps. Additionally, we find that the majority of evidence currently used is reductively based upon socio-economic and physical characteristics of climate risks. We argue that a step change is needed in local climate resilience that moves beyond current physical and socio-economic risk characterisation to a more inclusive co-constitution of social and politically defined climate risks at the local scale that are better aligned with the local impacts felt and needs of stakeholders

Anthropocene and "development" : intertwined trajectories since the beginning of the Great Acceleration = Antropoceno e "desenvolvimento" : trajetórias entrelaçadas desde o começo da Grande Aceleração

Objectives: We aim to propose the thesis that the trajectories of the Anthropocene and the current mainstream understandings of development are intertwined from the beginning. It means that the Anthropocene and the “development” are coetaneous: the implementation of development policies for the so-considered underdeveloped regions started to happen at the same time of what is known as The Great Acceleration of production, consumption and environmental degradation in a global level. Method: In this conceptual paper, we adopt a decolonial critique as an analytical lens and argue that different geopolitical positions may be necessary for approaching the issue of the Anthropocene from epistemological reflections that can include the cultural and political context of the production and reproduction of local knowledge. Results: Our theoretical argumentation sheds light on the role of Global North and South relations in shaping the environmental crisis. Latin America (LA) exemplifies the modus operandi of the intertwinement of the practical effects of development policies and the environmental consequences underlying the Anthropocene, in which natural resources are over-explored to satisfy export-oriented trade, from the South toward the North. LA is not only a propitious context to show the validity of our thesis, but also the source of alternatives to such developmental model. Conclusion: The emphasis on development as a cause of the Anthropocene supports The Great Acceleration thesis. The proposition of the name Developmentocene comes from the thesis that development and Anthropocene are coetaneous, the intertwinement of both resulting in the very definition of the new epoch.Objetivo: Buscamos propor a tese de que as trajetórias do Antropoceno e o entendimento atualmente dominante sobre desenvolvimento estão entrelaçadas desde o começo. Isso implica que o Antropoceno e o “desenvolvimento” são coetâneos: a implementação de políticas de desenvolvimento em regiões tidas como subdesenvolvidas começou a acontecer ao mesmo tempo em que teve início A Grande Aceleração da produção, do consumo e da degradação ambiental em nível global. Método: Neste artigo conceitual, nós adotamos a crítica decolonial como lente analítica e argumentamos a necessidade de diferentes posições geopolíticas para abordar a questão do Antropoceno a partir de reflexões epistemológicas que possam incluir o contexto cultural e político de produção e reprodução do conhecimento. Resultados: Nossa argumentação teórica enaltece as relações entre o Norte e o Sul Global no delineamento da crise ambiental. A América Latina (AL) exemplifica o modus operandi do entrelaçamento entre os efeitos práticos das políticas de desenvolvimento e as consequências ambientais subjacentes ao Antropoceno, em que os recursos naturais são explorados além dos limites para satisfazer o comércio para exportações, desde o Sul para o Norte. Nesse quadro, a AL não é apenas um contexto propício para mostrar a validade da nossa tese, mas também a fonte de alternativas a esse modelo de desenvolvimento. Conclusão: A ênfase no desenvolvimento como causa do Antropoceno apoia a tese da Grande Aceleração. A proposição do nome Desenvolvimentoceno advém da tese de que o desenvolvimento e o Antropoceno são coetâneos e que o entrelaçamento de ambos resulta na própria definição da nova época

The North-South divide

This chapter argues that the climate change issue is a classical North-South issue using a series of arguments. It then submits that the 25-year negotiation history of climate change shows can be divided into five phases. The chapter examines how the North-South dimension in relation to the nature of issues, membership of the two groups, and the coalitions they engage in, has evolved in each of these five phases. It explains that current discussions and frustrations regarding the ability of the international negotiations to address the climate change problem have to be examined in the light of evolving negotiations and the commitments that countries have been willing to adopt in the past. The chapter concludes that although in the initial stages of the negotiations there was more trust between the groups, there has been growing mistrust of the South with regard to whether the North would like to equitably address the problem

In pursuit of carbon accountability: the politics of REDD+ measuring, reporting and verification systems

This article reviews critical social science analyses of carbonaccounting and monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems associated with reducing emissions from deforestation, forest degradation and conservation, sustainable use and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+). REDD+ MRV systems are often portrayed as technical. In questioning such a framing, we draw on perspectives from science and technology and governmentality studies to assess how MRV systems may exercise disciplinary power (through standardization, simplification and erasing the local) but also mobilize counterexpertise, produce resistance and thus have necessarily contingent effects. In doing so, we advance the concept of ‘carbon accountability’ to denote both how forest carbon is accounted for in REDD+ and the need to hold to account those who are doing so