Naghmeh Nasiritousi

The roles of non-state actors in climate change governance: understanding agency through governance profiles

Globalization processes have rendered non-state actors an integral part of global governance. The body of literature that has examined non-state actor involvement in global governance has focused mainly on whether and how non-state actors can influence states. Less attention has been paid to the comparative advantages of non-state actors to answer questions about agency across categories of non-state actors, and more precisely what governance activities non-state actors are perceived to fulfil. Using unique survey material from two climate change conferences, we propose that different categories of non-state actors have distinct governance profiles. We further suggest that the different governance profiles are derived from particular power sources and that agency is a function of these profiles. The study thereby contributes to a strand in the literature focusing on the authority of non-state actors in climate governance and broadens the methodological toolkit for studying the “governors” of global governance.

Resisting Transparency: Corruption, Legitimacy, and the Quality of Global Environmental Policies

The domestic endorsement and institutionalization of transparency is of central importance to the implementation of global environmental policies. Studies often contend that interaction with international organizations (IOs) promotes domestic support for transparency. This article qualifies this conclusion and suggests that the positive effects of interaction with international organizations depend on the quality of IO decision-making processes, defined as their fairness, predictability, and effectiveness. Unfair, ineffective, and unpredictable decision-making processes in IOs can increase corruption, reduce legitimacy, and make officials blame transparency for unsatisfactory decision-making. The results build on a study of government officials in developing countries responsible for managing funds from the Clean Development Mechanism and the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol. Our findings suggest that government officials who perceive IO systems as unfair, ineffective, and unpredictable cultivate an adversarial relationship with media and NGOs and become more critical of the benefits of transparency.

Fossil fuel emitters and climate change: unpacking the governance activities of large oil and gas companies

ABSTRACT Global climate change governance is under increasing pressure to deliver meaningful action. It is now widely agreed that a low-carbon growth path requires major transformations of energy systems. The ways in which the 10 largest oil and gas companies in the world present their rationales for addressing climate change and their activities related to climate action, including the oil and gas companies’ involvement in international climate diplomacy, are examined. How these major companies in different world regions seek to influence states and other actors are illustrated through their actions on climate change. The analysis highlights the relations between state and non-state actors and our understanding of the allocation of responsibility in climate change politics. Novel empirical findings contribute to new insights into the climate change activities currently underway in the oil and gas sector, with implications for both the theory and practice of climate change governance.

Open or closed meetings? Explaining nonstate actor involvement in the international climate change negotiations

When do states allow nonstate actors (NSAs) to observe negotiations at intergovernmental meetings? Previous studies have identified the need for states to close negotiations when the issues under discussion are sensitive. This paper argues that sensitivity alone cannot adequately explain the dynamic of closing down negotiations to observers. Questions that have received little attention in the literature include which issues are considered sensitive and how the decision is made to move the negotiations behind closed doors. This paper examines the practices of NSA involvement in climate diplomacy from three analytical perspectives: functional efficiency, political dynamics, and historical institutionalism. Based on interviews and UNFCCC documents, this paper suggests that to understand the issue of openness in negotiations, institutional factors and the politics of NSA involvement need to be better scrutinized. The paper shows that each perspective has particular advantages when analyzing different dimensions of the negotiations, with implications of how we understand the role of NSAs in global environmental governance.