Beyond Interstate Stalemate: Innovation in Multilevel Climate Governance.

The conventionally understood mode of global environmental governanceâ€"universal, interstate, multilateral negotiations quintessentially represented by the 1997 Kyoto Protocolâ€"has essentially been stymied in climate change by the yawning gulfs that exist between the negotiating positions of major states. Yet stalemate at the state-centric level is not equivalent to the lack or demise of global governance of climate change. On the contrary, we are currently witnessing the emergence of multiple governance experiments at multiple levels of political organization (e.g. carbon offsetting, local governmental initiatives, regional initiatives, and carbon trading). This paper examines how the emergence of these governance experiments constrains and shapes the global response to climate change. It analyzes the politics of these experiments through the lenses of complex adaptive systems and social constructivism and examines how the experiments present both opportunities and obstacles for coherent and effective climate governance. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]