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Understanding the underlying forces of China’s climate governance, and assessing the effectiveness of China’s climate institutions, are critical to the global climate governance architecture. This ...

In this article the main aspects of the European Green Deal proposed by the European Commission in December 2019 are analyzed, putting the Green Deal into the broader context of European Union (EU) climate governance in order to assess whether and how it advances the EU’s climate agenda. Four broad and interrelated categories to evaluate the Green Deal are proposed. Its performance depends on whether it is and will remain a policy priority, despite the COVID-19 emergency and the ensuing economic crisis. Second, successful implementation depends on adequate financial endowment, including the shift of public funding from hydrocarbons to renewables and energy efficiency in post-pandemic economic programmes. The legal competence of EU institutions to coordinate and enforce the implementation of the Green Deal is also essential, as highlighted by ongoing discussions concerning governance to achieve zero net emissions by 2050. Furthermore, international cooperation with third partners on issues such as border carbon adjustment, technology transfers, and green industry will influence both the implementation of the Green Deal in the EU and the contribution of other major emitters to the climate agenda. The impact of the European Green Deal on EU-Russia relations is also investigated. In this respect, it is argued that the Green Deal poses a serious challenge to the traditional pattern of EU-Russia energy trade, which has been dominated by fossil fuels. However, the Green Deal also offers new avenues for cooperation and for a more sustainable EU-Russia energy relationship.

Indigenous communities have a particular stake in climate and energy developments, and have come to occupy a central role in both the movement toward decarbonization of industrial societies and renewable energy transition. Yet they remain underrepresented and excluded from climate policy processes. This paper critically evaluates the case of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to foster inclusive decision-making, with a specific focus on the place of Indigenous peoples in these processes. We demonstrate the ways in which the IPCC provides limited voice for Indigenous peoples in the Panel’s deliberations. We argue the IPCC’s disregard for Indigenous knowledges – and Indigenous peoples – arises from a configuration of structural problems within the governance of decarbonization and the politics of knowledge production. We conclude the IPCC faces on-going challenges in supporting the democratic functioning of climate decision-making, including in upholding Indigenous peoples’ internationally recognized human rights as political actors.

Non-technical summary Scaling sustainable behaviour change means addressing politics, power and social justice to tackle the uneven distribution of responsibility and agency for climate action, within and between societies. This requires a holistic understanding of behaviour that bridges the ‘individual’ and ‘systemic’, and acknowledges the need for absolute emissions reductions, especially by high-consuming groups, and in key ‘hotspots’ of polluting activity, namely, travel, diet and housing. It counters the dominant focus on individuals and households, in favour of a differentiated, but collective approach, driven by bold climate governance and social mobilisation to reorient institutions and behaviour towards just transitions, sufficiency and wellbeing. Technical summary Sustainable behaviour change has been rising up the climate policy agenda as it becomes increasingly clear that far-reaching changes in lifestyles will be required, alongside shifts in policy, service provision and technological innovation, if we are to avoid dangerous levels of global heating. In this paper, we review different approaches to behaviour change from economics, psychology, sociology and political economy, to explore the neglected question of scalability, and identify critical points of leverage that challenge the dominant emphasis on individual responsibility. Although politically contentious and challenging to implement, in order to achieve the ambitious target of keeping warming below 1.5 degrees, we propose urgent structural interventions are necessary at all points within an ecosystem of transformation, and highlight five key spheres for action: a ‘strong’ sustainability pathway; pursuing just transitions (via changes to work, income and infrastructure); rebalancing political institutions to expand spaces for citizens vis-a-vis elite incumbents; focusing on high polluting actors and activities; and supporting social mobilisation. We call for a move away from linear and ‘shallow’ understandings of behaviour change, dominated by traditional behavioural and mainstreaming approaches, towards a ‘deep’, contextualised and dynamic view of scaling as a transformative process of multiple feedbacks and learning loops between individuals and systems, engaged in a mutually reinforcing ‘spiral of sustainability’. Social media summary box Scaling behaviour change means addressing power and politics: challenging polluter elites and providing affordable and sustainable services for all.

Urban climate governance on the subnational and local government levels requires multilevel governance and local autonomy. Within centralised governments, climate action becomes challenging. Moreover, in developing countries, development needs are usually prioritised, while climate action is viewed as an unaffordable luxury. In a centralised, middle-income country like Egypt, climate action is a challenge for all government levels. This research investigates the current state and the prospect of urban climate change governance on the subnational level in Egypt. A twofold methodology is used. First, through desk research, a comprehensive list of urban climate governance enabling factors was extracted. The list was used to assess the practices of 3 international case studies (Delhi, Durban, and Amman) and then refined and used to assess the first subnational level climate change strategy in Egypt. Second, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a few selected experts working on climate change and urban policies in Egypt. Two sets of recommendations were formulated to expedite urban climate change governance in Egypt, especially on the subnational and local levels. While the research focuses on Egypt, the methodology and recommendations could be adopted and adapted by local governments functioning within centralised systems.

Climate change has been the ‘wicked problem’ the world has struggled to address so far. Further, the Covid-19 pandemic has deeply affected the soft underbelly of global governance by redrawing boundaries and fissures in the existing system. The pandemic is possibly the single biggest event in the post-Second World War period or in the last seventy years to shape and affect human emotion, response and survival instincts. The world has seen catastrophic changes and huge loss of life. There are multiple parallels and differences between the two of the most significant challenges faced by the humanity. Even though climate scientists were harping on the catastrophic impact of climate change for the last four decades, at the broader human consciousness level, the severity of the problem has never sunk into the common psyche. Covid-19 is a vivid example as to how a pathogen-led pandemic can torment and pervade the all-powerful and the highest evolved species on the earth, that is, the mankind. In this backdrop, climate governance and an ideal-type governance typology is being looked at to provide some key insights and possible answers for the future. The concern has been looked through at two levels: personal at the behavioural level and collective at the global-scale levels. Future prescriptions rooted in the current realities have been explored to find a way out of the crisis and the key learning points from the pandemic to face the future with more confidence and certainty.

Making a cost-effective governance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution is of great importance for megacities to pursue a sustainable future. To achieve this, the present study advocates megacities to implement a two-tier synergic governance system consisting of both synergic governance between GHG and air pollutant emission reductions and between megacities and their surrounding regions. Based on the LEAP model and WRF-SMOKE-CMAQ simulation platform, this study found that climate governance of China's megacity, Shenzhen, could synergistically contribute to decreasing urban annual PM2.5 concentration by 5.6% in 2030. Using synergic governance with surrounding regions could further help cap and then quickly decrease the megacity's GHG emissions and lower its PM2.5 concentrations by an additional 11.8%. The results demonstrated the substantial effects of transdepartment and transregional synergic governance on Shenzhen's GHG emission reduction and air quality improvement. Furthermore, this study suggested road transportation and power generation and supply as the two priority fields for wide-ranging megacities to promote two-tier synergic governance, highlighting an integration of improved urban electrification with high-efficiency electricity use and a renewable-based power supply.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the challenges to, and opportunities for, increasing sustainable development (SD) co-benefits delivered by clean development mechanism (CDM) wind power projects in northeastern Brazil and the resulting implications for climate and energy policies. Five methodological phases were met: First, a documentary research was conducted in the main CDM database; second was a literature review, creating the analytical framework and a survey questionnaire needed to assess the SD co-benefits from the projects; third, documentary research was used to enable ex-ante analysis of the SD co-benefits proposed in the CDM Project Design Documents (PDDs); fourth, survey allowed for the analysis of SD co-benefits perceived by project entrepreneurs (ex-post analysis); and finally, a comparison between the ex-ante and ex-post analyses was completed. The results show the importance of carrying out SD co-benefit studies after the implementation of CDM projects in order to learn lessons for new mechanisms of climate governance. The lowest SD co-benefits were water management improvement in the project influence area, soil pollution prevention, health and safety improvements and technology transfer. The greatest opportunities for increasing SD co-benefits come from the environmental licensing process and the strengthening of Corporate Social Responsibility. The greatest challenges are new technology development, stakeholders’ engagement and SD co-benefit audits. We conclude that the improvement of multi-level climate and energy governance plays a key role in increasing SD co-benefits.

Climate change and water security have become the most challenging global issues of this era, especially for developing countries like Pakistan. Amid many hindrances, poor governance has been identified as one of the most pressing reasons for ineffective action to tackle multifaceted and integrative climate-water issues in Pakistan. This article, therefore, applied a systematic literature review methodology to examine the current climate-water governance archetype, including key areas, major elements, critical gaps, and potential strategy in Pakistan. This study found that key climate-water governance areas in Pakistan are: river basin and watershed management, agriculture and irrigation management, urban and domestic water issues, floods, droughts and disaster management, groundwater management, and transboundary management. Moreover, it is revealed that the major governance elements are political commitment and leadership, policy formulation and regulation, institutional capacity and coordination, stakeholder engagement, and resource management, technology, and infrastructure development. The article also discusses how Pakistan has not effectively employed most of the identified governance elements to tackle its climate-water problems, lacking mostly in political, policy, institutional, coordination, and infrastructure aspects. In conclusion, a four-dimensional governance strategy, encompassing leadership, policy, institutions, and stakeholders is proposed to improve water sector resilience and adaptation to combat climate change in Pakistan. Highlights Poor governance is identified as the major reason for ineffective climate-water action in Pakistan.; Leadership, policy, institutions, and stakeholders are key facets of climate-water governance.; Pakistan lacks political leadership, policy processes, institutional capacity, and stakeholder engagement.; A four-dimensional strategy leadership-policy-institutions-stakeholders is needed to improve climate-water governance.

In the landmark Paris Agreement, the global economies agreed to put forward their best efforts in mitigation and adaptation of climate change. The member countries set their international and national targets to limit global temperature rise within 2 °C. The major and developed economics play a productive role in achieving the goals set in the Paris Agreement and failing would make it hard for the global community to limit the global temperature within the targeted range. The announcement of the USA to back out of the Paris Agreement has caused uncertainty in the global climate governance (GCG) regime. The present study overviews how the US defiance is likely to affect emission space, carbon prices, and macroeconomic conditions of the economies. It also focuses on the objective to analyze multiple strategic scenarios regarding GCG considering the role of three major contributors to GHG emissions—the USA, the EU, and China. An integrated conflict resolution strategy has been proposed by combining the analytical hierarchy process and attitude-based graph model for conflict resolution. The possible post-withdrawal scenarios based on possible alternatives for the GCG regime has been examined. This study incorporates influence power-based and attitude-based approaches to generate preference rankings of the alternative GCG strategies. The influence power-based and attitude-based preferences are used in general stability and attitude-based stability analyses to explore equilibrium GCG strategies. The analyses reveal that influence power and attitudes of the decision-makers (DMs) influence the preferences of DMs. This influence on preferences has implications on the outcomes of the GCG scenarios. The results of the influence power-based and attitude-based analyses imply that the collective GCG strategies are indispensable to protect the shared natural climate for environmental sustainability and development.

Over the last decade, a growing body of academic literature has reflected on how and under which conditions experiments in global climate governance lead to broader changes in rules, norms, and practices helping to meet the challenge of climate change. Drawing on the assumptions of the scholarship on experimentalist governance architectures, this article analyzes the effectiveness of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) as a comprehensive governance framework that enables the development and coordination of local policies for sustainable energy and climate through a range of joint instruments for recursive goal setting, monitoring, and benchmarking. Our findings illustrate the CoM’s significant potential in terms of both general political uptake and policy output, which could make of this program, if appropriately fine-tuned, a successful governance experiment contributing to building a more effective global climate regime.

Con una perspectiva de gobernanza regional, este trabajo vincula la evolución de las matrices energéticas de los países del MERCOSUR con el debate sobre las energías renovables y sus impactos en mitigación del cambio climático. Se aborda el caso de Uruguay, contrastándolo con Argentina y Brasil. Partiendo de situaciones divergentes en términos de instituciones y actores involucrados, se analizan puntos de convergencia dada la evolución durante años recientes de los intercambios de energía eléctrica entre Uruguay y sus socios del MERCOSUR. Se focaliza el proceso de inversiones en el sector de energías renovables en Uruguay, la situación actual y las perspectivas a mediano plazo. Dada la complejidad de la Agenda 2015 y la necesidad de fortalecer la gobernanza climática, se esbozan algunas perspectivas de los procesos regionales y nacionales de cara a la transición hacia modelos de desarrollo sostenible más asertivos.

This article assesses the evolving ‘stringency’ of multilateral climate mitigation governance towards the 2015 Paris Agreement. To do so, we systematically distinguish four key dimensions of hard/soft governance: (1) formal legal status; (2) the nature of the obligations (procedural-substantive); (3) prescriptiveness and precision; and (4) implementation review and response. We find that the governance approach of the Paris Agreement is significantly softer than the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, but harder than the 2010 Cancun Agreements under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. As a result, the Paris Agreement has had a differentiated effect on the stringency of governance. On the one side, it has softened climate governance for countries that are parties to the Kyoto Protocol, most notably the European Union. On the other side, it has hardened the international governance framework for developing countries and industrialised countries that are not subject to the Kyoto Protocol, including the US, Japan, Canada, and Russia. The shifting climate geopolitics of the twenty-first century helps us understand this development.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has established a climate governance mechanism with intergovernmental negotiations among sovereign states as the core. After nearly 30 years, progress in combating climate change has remained very modest compared with the numerous challenges raised. The global climate governance has entered a new era, such that incorporating other factors into the governance process is timely. Therefore, the study emphasizes technological innovation and business actors in climate governance after the Paris Agreement. Technological innovation can provide effective solutions for combating climate change and has been a crucial driving force in climate governance's evolution. Business actors are significant because they are actual implementers of technological innovation and can apply different types of power and influence on climate governance processes at various levels. In summary, business actors, as well as technological innovation in line with governments and the UNFCCC governance frameworks, create a new potential for climate governance in the new era.

Accounting guidelines exist for the recording of carbon flows in terrestrial and coastal ecosystems. Shelf sea sediments, while considered an important carbon store, have yet to receive comparable scrutiny. Here, we explore whether effective management of carbon stocks accumulating in shelf seas could contribute towards a nation’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. We review the complexities of carbon transport and fate in shelf seas, and the geopolitical challenges of carbon accounting in climate governance because of the transboundary nature of carbon flows in the marine environment. New international accounting guidance and governance frameworks are needed to prompt climate action., Accounting guidelines exist for carbon flows in terrestrial and coastal ecosystems, but not shelf sea sediments. In this Review, the authors explore whether effective management of carbon stocks accumulating in shelf seas could contribute to a nation’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.

Contributions to the climate governance literature have highlighted the importance of recognizing its new polycentric nature, which includes roles for non-state and subnational actors in climate change mitigation and in leadership for climate action. Yet, the literature is missing a normative cartography—that is, a mapping of the distribution of moral duties in the real world—which is tailored to a context of polycentric governance. This paper answers the question: how can moral duties be distributed in a context of polycentric climate governance such as to diminish the problem of non-compliance? This implies the following question: do duties change in situations of non-compliance in a context of polycentric governance, and if so how? Acknowledging polycentric governance is the key to an effective distribution of moral duties, as it allows for a more accurate mapping of non-state and subnational actors’ duties in leading the charge against climate change. Correspondingly, a normative cartography fitted to this context will be instrumental in showing how morally informed climate governance can diminish the problem of non-compliance. This paper focusses on the distribution of moral duties in a context of polycentric governance as a contributing factor to inducing agents to act according to the collective goal. It argues that a more fine-grained distribution of climate duties, tailored to polycentric climate governance, contributes to addressing the problem of non-compliance.

Climate change challenges how policy agents imagine and manage risks in space and time. The impacts are dynamic, uncertain and contested. We use riskscapes as a lens to analyse how New Zealand has perceived and mediated natural hazard and climate risks over time. We identify five different national riskscapes using a historical timeline, which have changed as global risks cascade into national and sub-national governance. We find that while there has been a major effort to reflect the dynamic and systemic language of risk theory in national policy, a significant challenge remains to develop appropriate governance and implementation strategies and to shift from long-held ways of doing and knowing.

Given the limitations of existing China’s climate governance studies, this research calls for more critical engagement with the broader contexts, clearer governance dimensions, and driving factors behind the evolution of climate policy within China. Drawing upon existing work, a policy-dimensioned framework is developed to study the evolution of Chinese governance and policy on climate change. A case study of the evolution of China’s national climate policy since 1978 is undertaken against this framework. The findings elaborate how China has applied various national policy tools since the 1990s to address climate change. Particular modes and forms build on, rather than completely replace, previous ones. A wide range of contextual and agential factors are related to this evolution. Experimentation has been a sustained theme for decades, while state political figures can be profoundly influential in policy development

The previous two decades of scholarship devoted to the role of social justice in climate change adaptation have established an important theoretical basis to evaluate the concept of just adaptation, or, in other words, how the implementation of climate adaptation policy affects socially vulnerable groups. This paper synthesizes insights from relevant literature on urban climate change governance, climate adaptation, urban planning, social justice theory, and policy implementation to develop three propositions concerning the conditions that must occur to implement just adaptation. First, just adaptation requires the inclusion of socially vulnerable populations as full participants with agency to shape the decisions that affect them. Second, just adaptation requires that adaptation framings explicitly recognize the causes of systemic injustice. Third, just adaptation requires a focus on incremental evaluations of implementation to avoid timeframes inconsistent with advancing justice. We then integrate the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) with the just adaptation literature to develop a framework to evaluate the implementation of climate adaptation. We present two novel modifications to the ACF aimed at fostering policy analysis of the previously presented three propositions for implementation of just adaptation.

It is indisputable that China has been a major actor in climate change. This raises the question: of which lens is most appropriate to gain an understanding of the recent changes in China's domestic climate change policy? Although there is insufficient attention paid to political science accounts of central-local relations in climate governance, this article aims to contribute to the theoretical research on Chinese climate change policy by developing and applying a theoretical framework. Using this novel theoretical framework based on systems theory, this article analyses the complex allocation of power and incentives between the central and local governments. Methodologically, this research is based on expert interviews with relevant officials, negotiators, scholars, climate nongovernmental organizations, and emitter companies. Our analysis reveals that this evolution has been a nonlinear process that has been substantially influenced by central-local governmental interactions. Specifically, we find two trial-and-error processes in the evolution of China's climate change policy. We conclude with some reflections on the wider implications of this recentralization trend for the long-term sustainability of China's climate change policies.

Climate change presents an important environmental challenge that is being addressed by the global community. The socio-economic efforts to address climate change involve both international and domestic economic transformation, industrial upgrading, infrastructure protection, and disaster prevention and mitigation, amongst other considerations. In particular, capacity-building is a prerequisite for both participating in global climate governance and for targeting domestic response measures. After the Paris Agreement, global climate governance has entered the new so-called “post-Paris” era. Changes to the United States’ global climate policy have exacerbated the complexity of global climate governance, but domestic actions by stakeholders at the national or sub-national level are still striving toward the goals agreed to in the Paris Agreement. In particular, China faces significant challenges in addressing climate change impacts in both global mitigation efforts and domestic adaptation needs. Here, we identify areas shortcoming in capacity building for China that are targeted for improvement in the “post-Paris” era. Firstly, advances in the basic scientific research capacity of China to study climate change should focus on climate change detection attribution, prediction and impact assessment. One specific approach includes the development of climate system models along with the improvement of the comprehensive climate observation system should be implemented to improve fundamental research on climate related topics. Secondly, it is necessary to further enhance China’s climate adaptation capacity, particularly targeting adaptation goals for agriculture and urbanized areas as well as improving risk assessment and management of for already-occurring disasters. Thirdly, the development of a comprehensive understanding and support system for policy makers that can be used to integrate climate change responses into China’s international and domestic policies is critical for formulating effective mitigation and adaptation efforts. Fourthly, efforts should also be taken in building and enhancing a clear legal system that addresses emerging challenges in mitigation and adaptation. To address many of the above challenges, improvements and expansions also need to be made to strengthen the national expertise in relevant professional fields of climate change, so as to effectively support the pertinence, specialization, refinement, and aptitude in developing strategies for the many climate change-related challenges facing China. Lastly, enhancements in public outreach, awareness and education on climate change will help the public to consciously practice many of the capacity-building efforts being developed, including adopting the concept of green and low carbon in their daily life.

Climate change is a financial factor that carries with it risks and opportunities for companies. To support boards of directors of companies belonging to all jurisdictions, the World Economic Forum issued in January 2019 eight Principlescontaining both theoretical and practical provisions on: climate accountability, competence, governance, management, disclosure and dialogue. The paper analyses each Principle to understand scope and managerial consequences for boards and to evaluate whether the legal distinctions, among the various jurisdictions, may undermine the application of the Principles or, by contrast, despite the differences the Principles may be a useful and effective guidance to drive boards' of directors' conduct around the world in handling climate change challenges. Five jurisdictions are taken into consideration for this comparative analysis: Europe (and UK), US, Australia, South Africa and Canada. The conclusion is that the WEF Principles, as soft law, is the best possible instrument to address boards of directors of worldwide companies, harmonise their conduct and effectively help facing such global emergency.

Urban real-world laboratories (RWLs) are increasingly used internationally and studied as an instrument of urban transformation. New cases in diverse political, economic, social and ecological situations offer a rich set of learning experiences, but the distinctive urban contexts make it impossible to draw comparisons in the traditional sense. In this article—an experiment in itself—we aim to gain a deeper understanding of how RWLs contribute to urban transformation in very different contexts. We apply Jennifer Robinson’s theoretical framework “thinking through elsewhere” on two ongoing urban RWLs: the Itaim Paulista Lab, located in the urban periphery of São Paulo, Brazil and the Lokstedt Urban Transformation Lab in Hamburg, Germany. We operationalize Robinson’s framework in two steps. First, we present the genetics—context, roots, concepts and activities—of both labs. Second, we engage the RWLs in a generative conversation on their role in transforming governance and practical action, with a special focus on the questions of if and how the labs contribute to long-term transformative change. We also find that both labs show potential to contribute to long-term transformative change through governance and practical action.

Discussions about climate mitigation tend to focus on the ambition of emission reduction targets or the prevalence, design, and stringency of climate policies. However, targets are more likely to translate to near-term action when backed by institutional machinery that guides policy development and implementation. Institutions also mediate the political interests that are often barriers to implementing targets and policies. Yet the study of domestic climate institutions is in its infancy, compared with the study of targets and policies. Existing governance literatures document the spread of climate laws (1, 2) and how climate policy-making depends on domestic political institutions (3–5). Yet these literatures shed less light on how states organize themselves internally to address climate change. To address this question, drawing on empirical case material summarized in table S1, we propose a systematic framework for the study of climate institutions. We lay out definitional categories for climate institutions, analyze how states address three core climate governance challenges—coordination, building consensus, and strategy development—and draw attention to how institutions and national political contexts influence and shape each other. Acontextual “best practice” notions of climate institutions are less useful than an understanding of how institutions evolve over time through interaction with national politics.

This article provides an analysis of the origins and effects of UK climate governance. It is centrally concerned with the relationships between politics and climate institutions, both in how political conditions have shaped the emergence of climate governance, and in how the resulting institutions subsequently structure climate politics. The analysis brings out three key themes. First, a focus on the CCA can overlook the enduring importance of the parallel climate governance architecture provided by the European Union. Second, it is important to see UK climate governance within a wider political and institutional context, as these results of this context, especially tensions between ambition and instability, have influenced its evolution. Third, this design, and other aspects of the evolution of UK climate governance framework, have in turn had implications for the strengths and weaknesses of the framework and how it has met key governance challenges.

In December 2019, the European Commission published the European Green Deal (EGD), an overarching policy framework to achieve climate neutrality in Europe by 2050. This thematic issue aims to understand the origins, form, development, and scope of the EGD and its policy areas. It uses the concept of turbulence to explore and assess the emergence of the EGD and the policy and governance choices associated with it. Focusing on different levels of governance, different policy domains, and different stages of policymaking, each contribution raises pertinent questions about the necessity of identifying sources of turbulence and of understanding how to govern with such turbulence, rather than against it. Overall, the articles in this issue demonstrate that, while specifying contextual factors, researching the sources of and responses to turbulence provides useful insights into the development, direction, and potential durability or advancement of EU climate governance.

A key aim of much climate activism is to enhance climate ambition and hold local and national governments, as well as global governance forums like the United Nations (UN), to account for the ways in which they implement and monitor climate policy across society to reverse long-term climate change. In recent years new local forms of climate activism, particularly at the urban scale, have taken a more prominent role in this. Although place-based, such local forms of climate activism are at the same time multi-scalar in orientation and strategic focus. This is particularly true in the UK where climate activism has prompted a number of local councils to declare climate emergencies, providing a mechanism by which they can become locally accountable in the delivery of their climate action plans, whilst at the same time holding national government to prior and future commitments to global climate governance. Using interview data with experts working on climate emergency declarations research across the UK, we critically discuss four key themes that have underpinned and catalysed the changing geographies of civil-state relationships within the climate emergency and what this may mean for future global climate governance under the UNFCCC Conferences of the Parties (COP). We argue that decision-makers at COP26 need to take greater heed of the significance of this new broader urban climate activism and its role in geopolitically mobilising more equitable, democratic and inclusive forms of climate governance which give citizens and civil society more credence within global climate policy decision-making processes that have been up to now, dominated by national state discourses.

The military is emerging as an important actor in climate change mitigation and adaptation, particularly when it comes to responding to climate extremes. While not generally considered a “governance actor” in scholarship on climate governance, militaries increasingly participate in climate-related knowledge production, resource provision, and decision-making. However, the nature and degree of involvement of militaries in these issues vary from context to context, based on political, socio-cultural, institutional, and economic conditions. This Perspective examines this expanding role through the five Earth System Governance research lenses. We argue that it is necessary to more fully account for the emergence of this powerful actor within accepted democratic frameworks of climate governance. Key research questions relate to the implications of military involvement, the appropriateness of military involvement in different contexts, and the consequences of the involvement of an authoritarian actor for climate governance norms.

How do governance arrangements affect perceptions of legitimacy and effectiveness amongst non-state actors? This is a pertinent question as the roles of non-state actors have been strengthened in global climate governance. In this paper, we focus on how actors involved in climate governance processes perceive trade-offs and specific factors that risk undermining legitimacy and potential effectiveness of those arrangements. We argue that different rules of procedural legitimacy generate sociological views about whether an institution or its policies will be effective and, in turn, are ‘worthy of support’. To establish this, we engage in an analysis of how nonstate actors have been engaged in the UNFCCC, pre- and post-Paris. We find that efforts to deepen engagement is generating contestation between actors, not fostering collaboration. Focusing on how actors view procedural rules and their potentialities for effective outcomes sheds light on support for those institutions and the development of effective policies.

The term “climate emergency” represents a new phase in climate change framing that many hope will invigorate more climate action. Yet there has been relatively little discussion of how the new emergency framing might shape broader governance and policy. In this advanced review, we critically review and synthesize existing literature on crisis and emergency to inform our understanding of how this new shift might affect governance and policy. Specifically, we explore the literature on crisis governance and policy to argue that there is no simple answer to whether the “climate emergency” framing will be supportive of climate governance and policy; rather, more work needs to be done to understand how different political actors respond according to their perceptions, interests and values. To assist this endeavor, we develop a typology of four policy pathways, ranging from “no emergency,” to “no emergency, but recognize risk,” “emergency as a threat” and “emergency as an opportunity.” We highlight the need to consider the effects of multiple and overlapping emergency frames, using the example of the intersection of climate change and COVID-19. Finally, we suggest new interdisciplinary research directions for critically analyzing and refining this new phase of climate change framing.

The global climate governance framework will need to empower a wide range of groups representing different geopolitical and sector-specific interests to engage in climate action. Learning from polycentric governance approaches could provide insight on how to foster more inclusive engagement and more effective outcomes from global efforts to fight climate change. The Paris Agreement has opened up room for this type of bottom-up, polycentric governance and new attention to important issues such as agriculture. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Climate Resilience Network (ASEAN-CRN) is an example of a polycentric system to enhance resilience and adapt to climate change. The ASEAN Negotiating Group on Agriculture (ANGA) enables the region’s agriculture sector to shape global climate governance frameworks. The case of ANGA highlights that opening up space for polycentric systems can foster climate action in relevant sectors. Supporting regions to navigate UNFCCC processes can further enable polycentric systems, enhancing climate resilience and adaptation.

Despite global recognition of the urgency of climate action and the need to transition to a low-carbon economy, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, and adaptation needs remain urgent. For a number of years, there have been calls for greater attention to political economy in tackling climate change and development outcomes. The political economy analysis is important as it can be used to assess the factors that may enable or constrain the implementation of climate change policies and actions and sustain political commitment. A framework can guide the process of political economy analysis, identifying relevant stakeholders, their incentives and motives, and other structural factors. This rapid review summarises several such frameworks specifically aimed at climate governance issues developed in recent years, some of these also include useful guidance and steps on the implementation of the framework. The review focuses strictly on the literature around political economy analyses in relation to climate change. It does not explore the history of and rationale for political economy analysis in development in general, nor the accompanying frameworks or operational How-To guides. Another K4D helpdesk by Lucas (2019) looking at what factors affect the political will of African governments to address climate change highlights a number of political economy frameworks that may also be useful to draw on.

As the technical and political challenges of land-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approaches become more apparent, the oceans may be the new “blue” frontier for carbon drawdown strategies in climate governance. Drawing on lessons learnt from the way terrestrial carbon dioxide removal emerged, we explore increasing overall attention to marine environments and mCDR projects, and how this could manifest in four entwined knowledge systems and governance sectors. We consider how developments within and between these “frontiers” could result in different futures—where hype and over-promising around marine carbon drawdown could enable continued time-buying for the carbon economy without providing significant removals, or where reforms to modeling practices, policy development, innovation funding, and legal governance could seek co-benefits between ocean protection, economy, and climate.

Despite their significant, growing contribution to global emissions, international aviation and shipping have avoided a significant climate governance response until recently. This paper outlines the urgent need for, but major barriers to, decarbonisation of these industries, including various market failures and sensitivities over restraining demand. The need and potential for international governance to address these issues is seen to vary across aviation and shipping, given different industry structures and characteristics. A range of relevant inter- and transnational governance institutions is highlighted and an assessment of their overall adequacy offered. With a 2018 commitment to significant emission reduction, maritime governance effort has progressed further, although significant implementation challenges remain. Meanwhile aviation-related commitments rely more on out-of-sector offsets. Options for enhancing governance for decarbonisation are outlined, highlighting the importance of, inter alia, coordination between the UNFCCC and sectoral bodies, mechanisms to finance R&D and incentivise investment, and openness in key decision-making fora.

This commentary places the international climate governance assessment offered in this Special Issue in the broader context of a comprehensive framework for assessing the adequacy of the global response to meet the Paris Agreement long-term goals. It suggests ways to further advance global governance assessments in supporting the dynamic process of progressively strengthening collective ambition and action. It finds that the sectoral systems approach enables the operationalization of multidimensional adequacy assessments. It also identifies the need to further improve the integration of multiple levels of governance and short- and long-term time horizons. Lessons from the discussion on sectoral granularity, multi-scale considerations and short-long term coherence are finally synthetized as guiding principles for the design of key processes and instruments of the Paris Agreement. This leads to highlighting priorities for the design of the Global Stocktake and the further elaboration of the instrument of countries’ Long Term Strategies.

This concluding article derives six major findings from the contributions to this special issue. First, the barriers and challenges to decarbonisation vary significantly across sectoral systems. Second, and similarly, the need and potential for the five functions of international governance institutions to contribute to effective climate protection also vary widely. Third, while the pattern is uneven, there is a general undersupply of international climate governance. Fourth, the sectoral analyses confirm that the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement play an important overarching role but remain limited in advancing effective sectoral governance. Fifth, while non-environmental institutions may present important barriers to decarbonisation, more synergistic effects are possible. Sixth, our sectoral approach provides a sound basis on which to identify sector-specific policy options. The paper then offers reflections on the merits and limitations of the sectoral approach, before identifying avenues for future research to further advance the agenda.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess indigenous climate governance through climate change and variability discourse by a rural Zimbabwean community. In Zimbabwe, climate governance has largely been presented from a political angle as indicated in the current climate governance structure. Apparently, the structure does not directly involve rural communities who at the same time suffer the most from the effects of climate change. Hence, the study intends to demonstrate that the manner in which humans perceive climate change influences their responses and actions vis-à-vis climate governance. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study used 20 participants from a rural community in Zimbabwe. Their experiences were used as lances through which indigenous climate governance could be envisioned and executed. In-depth interviews were used to collect data and thematic content analysis was used to analyse data. Findings The study found that climate change perceptions and observations of weather conditions informs the community’s decisions on how to adapt to the impacts of climate change vis-à-vis indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) climate governance. The study also proposed a paradigm shift from a Western-oriented climate governance structure that currently exists in Zimbabwe to an indigenous model through a proposed IKS governance structure. This was considered significant because of the fact that it closely accommodates the community based on their lifestyle. Originality/value The study proposes a paradigm shift from a Western-oriented climate governance structure that currently exist in Zimbabwe to an indigenous model through a proposed IKS governance structure. This is arrived at by assessing climate change perceptions, narratives and experiences by community members. This is of particular importance because a few scholars have explored climate governance via IKS.

The business community has played an increasingly prominent role in international climate governance since the signing of the Paris Agreement. However, recent corporate scandals, such as those of ExxonMobil and Volkswagen, have cast doubt on the credibility of corporate climate action. This paper thus examines the role of corporate climate governance in the post-Paris climate regime. Primarily, this paper focuses on the We Mean Business coalition, which brings together the leading business groups on climate action. Through exploration of the coalition’s organizational structure, its flagship initiative of RE100, and the mechanisms in which firms internalize climate commitments, the case of We Mean Business demonstrates that there is a credible corporate governance regime which plays a critical role in global efforts to combat climate change.

The narrative of urban sustainability transformations epitomises the hope that urban governance can create the conditions to plan and govern cities in a way that they contribute to local and global sustainability and resilience. So far, urban governance is not delivering: novel governance approaches are emerging in cities worldwide, yet are unable to transform conventional policymaking and planning to allow for innovative, co-beneficial and long-term solutions and actions to emerge and institutionalise. We present a capacities framework for urban transformations governance, starting from the need to fulfil distinct output functions (‘what needs to happen’) for mobilising and influencing urban transformation dynamics. The framework helps to diagnose and inform urban governance for responding to disturbances (stewarding capacity), phasing-out drivers of path-dependency (unlocking capacity), creating and embedding novelties (transformative capacity) and coordinating multi-actor processes (orchestrating capacity). Our case study of climate governance in New York City exemplifies the framework's applicability and explanatory power to identify conditions and activities facilitating transformation (governance), and to reveal gaps and barriers of these vis-a-vis the existing governance regime. Our framework thereby functions as a tool to explore what new forms of urban transformation governance are emerging, how effective these are, and how to strengthen capacities.

An increasing number of organizations seek to address the climate-development challenge in multiple ways. These “climate-development organizations” (CDOs) are found at different levels: from the in...

Since the conclusion of the Paris Agreement, climate litigation has become a global phenomenon, casting courts as important players in multilevel climate governance. However, most climate litigation scholarship focuses on court actions in the Global North. This Article is the first to shine a light on the Global South's contribution to transnational climate litigation. Analysis of this experience is essential if transnational climate jurisprudence is to contribute meaningfully to global climate governance, and to ensuring just outcomes for the most climate-vulnerable.

The IPCC has predicted that the Amazon rainforest will suffer strong consequences from a changing climate in the near future. The Amazon countries still have limited national policies on how to adapt and have failed to cooperate to promote adaptation plans at the regional level. Most studies have focused on adaptation policies at a local or national level, but overlook how these interact with the necessary regional cooperation required in transboundary ecosystems. This article assesses regional and national plans for climate adaptation in Amazonia, asking whether these provide a basis for regional adaptation policies. Have countries addressed climate adaptation in their NDCs and are there any synergies between countries? Are the Amazon countries currently implementing adaptation policies through the regional framework Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, and if so how? The analysis is then contrasted with the regional adaptation policies promoted in Central America, a region that faces similar challenges. The analysis finds that regional adaptation governance in the Amazon region is still incipient, and requires a holistic view that integrates a multi-stakeholder approach to climate adaptation. This article makes a vital contribution to the impact and contribution of Amazonia to climate governance, which is still poorly understood.