Every country is a polluter and a victim of anthropogenic climate change.
Inextricably linked, every greenhouse gas emitted from every corner of the
world changes the atmospheric composition of the climate system. Viewing the
climate change problem from this lens, every person from every country must
play its part in mitigating and adapting to climate change. And every country
is a developing country, in the sense of universality as conveyed by
“Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (2030
Agenda). Goal 13 of the 2030 Agenda specifically recognises the United Nations
Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as the primary forum of global climate
governance. However, progress for legally binding quantified emissions
reductions limitations (QERLs) mitigation targets under the UNFCCC-style
multilateralism framework has yet to produce an effective response to the
threat of global warming. The gap between currently pledged QERLs trajectories
and global emissions levels consistent with limiting global warming to 2oC
Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures remains large. It is therefore not
surprising that a growing number of minilateralism-style proposals (e.g.
climate clubs) have emerged in the literature as a way forward to promote
QERLs actions in the post 2015 Paris Climate Summit era. This paper explores
how climate clubs could potentially assist in catalysing greater international
cooperation for effective QERLs actions. The paper then specifically
investigates how the Alliance of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS) could
assist in pioneering emerging international cooperation efforts to establish
climate clubs to fast track QERLs actions. What makes AOSIS’s epic quest to be
a member of the international climate clubs movement so important is the
question of whether it can help navigate the international community towards
using climate minilaterism-style clubs to complement UNFCCC-style
multilaterism in the post 2015 Paris Climate Summit era
