Heike Schroeder

Conceptualizing Climate Governance Beyond the International Regime

The governance of climate change has traditionally been conceived as an issue of international co-operation and considered through the lens of regime analysis. Increasingly, scholars of global governance have highlighted the multiple parallel initiatives involving a range of actors at different levels of governance through which this issue is being addressed. In this paper, we argue that this phenomenon warrants a re-engagement with some of the conceptual cornerstones of international studies. We highlight the conceptual challenges posed by the increasing involvement of non-nation-state actors (NNSAs) in the governance of climate change and explore the potential for drawing from alternative theoretical traditions to address these challenges. Specifically, the paper combines insights from neo-Gramscian and governmentality perspectives as a means of providing the critical space required to generate deeper understanding of: (a) the nature of power in global governance; (b) the relationship between public and private authority; (c) the dynamics between structure and agency; and (d) the rationalities and practices of governance.

Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance

The United Nations conference in Rio de Janeiro in June is an important opportunity to improve the institutional framework for sustainable development. Science assessments indicate that human activities are moving several of Earths sub-systems outside the range of natural variability typical for the previous 500,000 years (1, 2). Human societies must now change course and steer away from critical tipping points in the Earth system that might lead to rapid and irreversible change (3). This requires fundamental reorientation and restructuring of national and international institutions toward more effective Earth system governance and planetary stewardship.

A Portfolio Approach to Analyzing Complex Human-Environment Interactions: Institutions and Land Change

The challenge confronting those seeking to understand the institutional dimensions of global environmental change and patterns of land-use and land-cover change is to find effective methods for analyzing the dynamics of socio-ecological systems. Such systems exhibit a number of characteristics that pose problems for the most commonly used statistical techniques and may require additional and innovative analytic tools. This article explores options available to researchers working in this field and recommends a strategy for achieving scientific progress. Statistical procedures developed in other fields of study are often helpful in addressing challenges arising in research into global change. Accordingly, we start with an assessment of some of the enhanced statistical techniques that are available for the study of socio-ecological systems. By themselves, however, even the most advanced statistical models cannot solve all the problems that arise in efforts to explain institutional effectiveness and patterns of land-use and land-cover change. We therefore proceed to an exploration of additional analytic techniques, including configurational comparisons and meta-analyses; case studies, counterfactuals, and narratives; and systems analysis and simulations. Our goal is to create a portfolio of complementary methods or, in other words, a tool kit for understanding complex human-environment interactions. When the results obtained through the use of two or more techniques converge, confidence in the robustness of key findings rises. Contradictory results, on the other hand, signal a need for additional analysis.

The role of non-nation-state actors and side events in the international climate negotiations

United Nations climate change conferences have attracted an increasing number and range of observer participants, often outnumbering national delegates. The interactions between the formal and informal spaces of climate governance at the Conference of the Parties (COP) are explored by investigating why non-nation state actors (NNSAs) attend them and by measuring to what extent official UN Side Events provide relevant information for the formal negotiations. Based on primary empirical research at recent COPs, it is found that 60–75% of Side Events have related directly to items under negotiation in the post-2012 climate negotiations. In this regard, Side Events that facilitate informal exchange between stakeholders not only provide input into the negotiations but also allow issues beyond the realm of the negotiations to be discussed, reflecting the scope of climate change. Although Side Events are an effective forum to exchange ideas and network, their current format and purpose as being events ‘on the side’ does not offer a sufficient framework for coordination between the work of NNSAs and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process.

Going beyond two degrees? The risks and opportunities of alternative options

Since the mid-1990s, the aim of keeping climate change within 2 °C has become firmly entrenched in policy discourses. In the past few years, the likelihood of achieving it has been increasingly called into question. The debate around what to do with a target that seems less and less achievable is, however, only just beginning. As the UN commences a two-year review of the 2 °C target, this article moves beyond the somewhat binary debates about whether or not it should or will be met, in order to analyse more fully some of the alternative options that have been identified but not fully explored in the existing literature. For the first time, uncertainties, risks, and opportunities associated with four such options are identified and synthesized from the literature. The analysis finds that the significant risks and uncertainties associated with some options may encourage decision makers to recommit to the 2 °C target as the least unattractive course of action.

Beyond state/non-state divides: Global cities and the governing of climate change

This article challenges the assumption that the boundaries of state versus non-state and public versus private can readily be drawn. It argues that the roles of actors — as state or non-state — and the forms of authority — public or private — are not pre-given but are forged through the process of governing. Drawing on neo-Gramscian and governmentality perspectives, it suggests that a more dynamic account of the state can offer a more nuanced means of analysing the process of governing global environmental affairs. In order to understand this process and the outcomes of governing climate change, we argue that analysis should focus on the hegemonic projects and programmes through which the objects and subjects of governing are constituted and contested, and through which the form and nature of the state and authority are accomplished. We suggest that this is a process achieved and held in place through ‘forging alignment’ between diverse social and material entities in order to achieve the ‘right disposition of things’ through which the will to govern climate change can be realized (Murray Li, 2007a). We illustrate this argument by examining the governing of climate change in two global cities, London and Los Angeles.

Forest Tenure and Multi-level Governance in Avoiding Deforestation under REDD+

This paper investigates the role of forest tenure in creating a sustainable and effective mechanism on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). It draws together existing knowledge and experience of forest tenure issues as they play out in real contexts, and evaluates their implications for REDD+. In particular, it challenges the argument that simply harmonising different tenure systems will lead to improved tenure security and ensure that REDD+ does not disenfranchise local communities. By bringing to light the ways in which local tenure could shape the implementation of REDD+, this paper provides insights that can contribute to the design of a sustainable, effective and equitable REDD+ agreement. The findings suggest that a more nuanced and locally specific understanding of tenure security and ownership are required in order to create favourable grounds for REDD+ implementation.

Beyond Carbon: Enabling Justice and Equity in REDD+ Across Levels of Governance

The global nature of climate change and the globalization of environmental governance have highlighted the challenges of enabling justice and equity across diverse societies and multiple levels of governance. At the center of these challenges are ongoing debates over the distribution of rights and responsibilities for environmental and social impacts e.g., to what degree are developed countries responsible for climate disasters and developing countries responsible for adapting to them?; what rights do global versus national and local actors have to steer decision-making?; and what are the relative rights of present versus future generations or human versus non-human species? These debates have been variously framed in normative terms, drawing on particular norms of justice or equity as de facto goals in and of themselves, or based in instrumentalist arguments, e.g., the importance of justice and equity to achieving lasting emissions reductions. Perhaps nowhere have these debates been more complex and multi-faceted than under Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+), a mechanism of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Governance for sustainability: knowledge integration and multi-actor dimensions in risk management

Sustainability has many dimensions, including various aspects of environmental, social and economic sustainability. This paper proposes an analytical framework of risk-related governance for sustainability, based on literature review, focusing on two dimensions—knowledge integration and multi-actor governance. Knowledge integration necessitates wider coverage of predicted and anticipated risks and information on those risks. Multi-actor governance necessitates mechanisms that enable cooperation among actors. The relevance of this analytical framework is then checked using concrete cases of governance for reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), and the possible case of governance for sustainable phosphorus management.

Novel Multisector Networks and Entrepreneurship in Urban Climate Governance

The papers in this theme issue seek to advance our understanding of the roles of networks and partnerships in the multilevel governance of climate change and related issues in the urban context. In particular, the papers examine the roles of nontraditional actors and apply emerging theoretical approaches such as sustainability transitions theory to gain a greater understanding of the variety of approaches being employed around the world, as well as the transformative potential of these approaches. We discuss the role of the state relative to the roles of local leadership, knowledge systems, and community-wide collaborative engagement in bringing about sustainability transitions.