Global environmental governance in the Anthropocene: An introduction

The term Anthropocene denotes a new geological epoch characterized by the unprecedented impact of human activities on the Earth’s ecosystems. While the natural sciences have advanced their understanding of the drivers and processes of global change considerably over the last two decades, the social sciences lag behind in addressing the fundamental challenge of governance and politics in the Anthropocene. This book attempts to close this crucial research gap, in particular with regards to the following three overarching research themes: (i) the meaning, sense-making and contestations emerging around the concept of the Anthropocene related to the social sciences; (ii) the role and relevance of institutions, both formal and informal as well as international and transnational, for governing in the Anthropocene; and (iii) the role and relevance of accountability and other democratic principles for governing in the Anthropocene. Drawing together a range of key thinkers in the field, this volume provides one of the first authoritative assessments of global environmental politics and governance in the Anthropocene, reflecting on how the planetary scale crisis changes the ways in which humans respond to the challenge. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of global environmental politics and governance, and sustainable development

Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Governance and Politics

The Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Governance and Politics surveys the broad range of environmental and sustainability challenges in the emerging Anthropocene and scrutinizes available concepts, methodological tools, theories and approaches, as well as overlaps with adjunct fields of study. This comprehensive reference work, written by some of the most eminent academics in the field, contains 68 entries on numerous aspects across 7 thematic areas, including concepts and definitions; theories and methods; actors; institutions; issue-areas; cross-cutting questions; and overlaps with non-environmental fields. With this broad approach, the volume seeks to provide a pluralistic knowledge base of the research and practice of global environmental governance and politics in times of increased complexity and contestation. Providing its readers with a unique point of reference, as well as stimulus for further research, this Encyclopedia is an indispensable tool for anyone interested in the politics of the environment, particularly students, teachers and researchers

Environmental Politics and Governance in the Anthropocene: Institutions and Legitimacy in a Complex World

The term Anthropocene denotes a new geological epoch characterized by the unprecedented impact of human activities on the Earth’s ecosystems. While the natural sciences have advanced their understanding of the drivers and processes of global change considerably over the last two decades, the social sciences lag behind in addressing the fundamental challenge of governance and politics in the Anthropocene.This book attempts to close this crucial research gap, in particular with regards to the following three overarching research themes: (i) the meaning, sense-making and contestations emerging around the concept of the Anthropocene related to the social sciences; (ii) the role and relevance of institutions, both formal and informal as well as international and transnational, for governing in the Anthropocene; and (iii) the role and relevance of accountability and other democratic principles for governing in the Anthropocene. Drawing together a range of key thinkers in the field, this volume provides one of the first authoritative assessments of global environmental politics and governance in the Anthropocene, reflecting on how the planetary scale crisis changes the ways in which humans respond to the challenge.This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of global environmental politics and governance, and sustainable development

Conclusions: Complexity, Responsibility and Urgency in the Anthropocene

The term Anthropocene denotes a new geological epoch characterized by the unprecedented impact of human activities on the Earth’s ecosystems. While the natural sciences have advanced their understanding of the drivers and processes of global change considerably over the last two decades, the social sciences lag behind in addressing the fundamental challenge of governance and politics in the Anthropocene.This book attempts to close this crucial research gap, in particular with regards to the following three overarching research themes: (i) the meaning, sense-making and contestations emerging around the concept of the Anthropocene related to the social sciences; (ii) the role and relevance of institutions, both formal and informal as well as international and transnational, for governing in the Anthropocene; and (iii) the role and relevance of accountability and other democratic principles for governing in the Anthropocene. Drawing together a range of key thinkers in the field, this volume provides one of the first authoritative assessments of global environmental politics and governance in the Anthropocene, reflecting on how the planetary scale crisis changes the ways in which humans respond to the challenge.This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of global environmental politics and governance, and sustainable development

Partnerships for SDGs: Facilitating a Biodiversity-Climate Nexus?

In the past three decades, the UN has led the governance of sustainable development via three different global agendas that have taken different perspectives towards sustainable development and brought about some structural changes. The 2030 Agenda is the most recent one, and two key characteristics distinguish it from its predecessors: (1) it is the first agenda explicitly recognizing the interconnected nature of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals; and (2) multistakeholder partnerships (MSPs) play a more central role in the implementation of the goals than ever before. SDG 17 actually calls for partnerships as the main vehicle of delivering sustainable development globally. With these two characteristics, the 2030 Agenda implicitly assumes that MSPs are an effective vehicle for bridging the goals. Whether MSPs can indeed act as nexus facilitators, and how they can achieve it, have received little scholarly attention. Thousands of partnerships have been registered on UNDESA’s Partnership Platform, many of which cut across SDGs and promise to deliver synergies between different issue areas. Empirically focusing on entries in this platform that declare they are working on SDGs 13 (Climate action) and 15 (Life on land), this chapter explores whether MSPs live up to the expectation that they act as nexus facilitators

Beyond the public and private divide: Remapping transnational climate governance in de 21th century

This article provides a first step towards a better theoretical and empirical knowledge of the emerging arena of transnational climate governance. The need for such a re-conceptualization emerges from the increasing relevance of non-state and transnational approaches towards climate change mitigation at a time when the intergovernmental negotiation process has to overcome substantial stalemate and the international arena becomes increasingly fragmented. Based on a brief discussion of the increasing trend towards transnationalization and functional segmentation of the global climate governance arena, we argue that a remapping of climate governance is necessary and needs to take into account different spheres of authority beyond the public and international. Hence, we provide a brief analysis of how the public/private divide has been conceptualized in Political Science and International Relations. Subsequently, we analyse the emerging transnational climate governance arena. Analytically, we distinguish between different manifestations of transnational climate governance on a continuum ranging from delegated and shared public-private authority to fully non-state and private responses to the climate problem. We suggest that our remapping exercise presented in this article can be a useful starting point for future research on the role and relevance of transnational approaches to the global climate crisis