DOCSLIB.ORG

Download the 2018 Earth System Governance Science and Implementation Plan

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Download the 2018 Earth System Governance Science and Implementation Plan EARTH SYSTEM GOVERNANCE Science and Implementation Plan of the Earth System Governance Project 2018 Coordinating Lead Authors: Sarah Burch, Aarti Gupta, Cristina Yumie Aoki Inoue, Agni Kalfagianni, Åsa Persson Lead Authors: Andrea K. Gerlak, Atsushi Ishii, James Patterson, Jonathan Pickering, Michelle Scobie, Jeroen van der Heijden, Joost Vervoort Contributing Authors Carolina Adler, Michael John Bloomfield, Riyanti Djalante, John S. Dryzek, Victor Galaz, Christopher Gordon, Renée Harmon, Sikina Jinnah, Rakhyun E. Kim, Lennart Olsson, Judith van Leeuwen, Vasna Ramasar, Paul Wapner, Ruben Zondervan Citation This report can be cited as: Earth System Governance Project. 2018. Earth System Governance. Science and Implementation Plan of the Earth System Governance Project. Utrecht, the Netherlands. Contact Earth System Governance International Project Office www.earthsystemgovernance.org Email: [email protected] Contents List of Figures 5 List of Tables 5 1 Introduction 6 1.1 Background and Process 7 1.2 Relevance and Urgency 10 1.3 Structure of the Plan 15 2 A New Earth System Governance Research Framework 18 3 Contextual Conditions 22 3.1 Transformations 23 3.2 Inequality 28 3.3 Anthropocene 31 3.4 Diversity 35 4 Research Lenses 42 4.1 Architecture and Agency 43 4.2 Democracy and Power 49 4.3 Justice and Allocation 56 4.4 Anticipation and Imagination 61 4.5 Adaptiveness and Reflexivity 68 5 Conducting Earth System Governance Research 76 5.1 Ontology and Epistemology – Different Ways of Knowing 77 5.2 Methodology and Methods of Analysis 79 5.3 Disciplinary Depth, Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity 83 6 Earth System Governance in Society 86 6.1 Science-Society Interactions: Goals and Approaches 87 6.2 Integrating Earth System Governance Research into Education 89 7 Modus Operandi of the Earth System Governance Network 94 7.1 Organization 95 7.2 Enabling Environment 98 References 102 List of Figures Figure 1. The Earth System Governance Research Framework 19 Figure 2. Illustration of how the ESG Research Framework generates research questions 21 List of Tables Table 1: The New Earth System Governance Science and Implementation Plan: Process and Timeline 9 Table 2: The ESG Research Framework: interplay between research lenses and contextual conditions – Architecture and Agency 48 Table 3: The ESG Research Framework: interplay between research lenses and contextual conditions – Democracy and Power 55 Table 4: The ESG Research Framework: interplay between research lenses and contextual conditions – Justice and Allocation 61 Table 5: The ESG Research Framework: interplay between research lenses and contextual conditions – Anticipation and Imagination 67 Table 6: The ESG Research Framework: interplay between research lenses and contextual conditions – Adaptiveness and Reflexivity 74 1 Introduction INTRODUCTION This Science and Implementation Plan sets out the agenda for the next decade of earth system governance research. In this section, we present a new vision developed by the research community and describe the background and process of developing the plan. We explain the structure of the plan, and provide an overview of environmental, economic, social and political trends that define the context of the next generation of earth system governance research. To facilitate high-quality and novel earth system governance research, we need to regularly rethink the relevance and urgency of our research endeavour in light of a changing world and changing earth system. This plan builds on successful elements of the previous plan but adds new research lenses and approaches that have come to the fore and will be important to earth system governance in the coming decade. While the timeframe of this plan is the next ten years, we expect that there will be active engagement and discussion when taking it forward, to ensure high relevance to governance challenges and new scientific findings. The implementation of this plan will be aided by shorter-term action plans developed by the Scientific Steering Committee. 1.1 Background and Process The Earth System Governance Project was launched in 2009 to explore governance mechanisms addressing multilevel environmental change, as presented in its ten-year Science and Implementation Plan (Biermann et al., 2009a). The Science and Implementation Plan proposed to coordinate research using a framework of five analytical problems: Accountability, Adaptiveness, Agency, Allocation and access, and Architecture (‘the five As’), with crosscutting themes of knowledge, norms, power and scale. Since 2009, the earth system governance research network has grown and is now well established in the scientific community. Project activities have expanded to include 14 research centres, more than 65 lead faculty members, 60 senior research fellows, 210 research fellows, and about 20 otherwise affiliated researchers, coordinators and staff, as well as a considerable communication and outreach capacity and a wide variety of conferences, initiatives and publication series delivered. A decade after its inception, it is now a timely moment to update the existing Earth System Governance Research Framework to reflect new innovations, opportunities and complexities emerging in earth system governance, and to continue to stimulate a pluralistic, vibrant and relevant research community in this field. While most of the five As are still seen as relevant, a need has been identified to more prominently incorporate concepts like democracy, power, anticipation and imagination in the analytical framework. 7 EARTH SYSTEM GOVERNANCE SCIENCE AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN With this new Science and Implementation Plan for the next decade, the aim is to learn from past achievements and simultaneously take the next step in our ability and efforts to understand new, emerging and existing problems and solutions related to global environmental change. The new plan also aims to expand the global mobilization of researchers, stimulate and facilitate research collaboration, and effectively communicate and engage with society. Our vision is to understand, imagine and help realize just and sustainable futures by stimulating a pluralistic, vibrant and relevant research community The first steps towards this plan were taken through open discussions with the Earth System Governance Lead Faculty and research fellows as well as the wider community at the 2014 Norwich Conference on Earth System Governance, and the 2015 Canberra Conference on Earth System Governance, which identified issues for a next-generation research agenda and new potential modes of collaboration and engagement with society. In 2016, the New Directions Initiative was launched. A team of lead authors was established to co-develop a Science and Implementation Plan with the earth system governance research community. The 22 lead authors represented a variety of disciplines, areas of research expertise, gender and geographical balance. Five coordinating lead authors were selected by the group, with the responsibility to initiate the discussion and coordinate the writing process. At the 2016 Nairobi Conference on Earth System Governance, the lead authors met to develop the first draft of the table of contents. It was then presented to and discussed with the conference participants. Based on this feedback, the lead authors developed a full draft Science and Implementation Plan for discussion during and after the 2017 Lund Conference on Earth System Governance. Based on feedback received at the conference, the lead authors revised the plan and presented it at a round table at the 2018 Annual Convention of the International Studies Association in San Francisco, April 2018. In May and June 2018, the full draft was made available online for review and feedback by the entire earth system governance community of researchers. Based on this feedback, the coordinating lead authors led the final revision. The final plan was launched at the 2018 Utrecht Conference on Earth System Governance, in November 2018. 8 INTRODUCTION 2006 Appointment of a Scientific Planning Committee to design a new core project under the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change 2007 2007 Amsterdam Conference on Earth System Governance (first global conference on earth system governance, shaping the new research agenda) 2009 Launch of the Earth System Governance Project and the original Science and Implementation Plan in New Delhi 2014 Initial discussions on new directions at the 2014 Norwich Conference on Earth System Governance 2015 Continued discussions on new directions at the 2015 Canberra Conference on Earth System Governance 2016 Lead authors were invited and coordinating lead authors selected to start writing a new Science and Implementation Plan Lead authors met at the 2016 Nairobi Conference on Earth System Governance and presented an outline of the plan to all conference participants 2017 A full draft plan was discussed by lead authors at a meeting prior to the Lund conference and its key elements were discussed with conference participants in plenary 2018 Earth system governance community invited to review a revised plan in early summer Coordinating lead authors led the final revision of the plan Launch of the new Earth System Governance Science and Implementation Plan at the 2018 Utrecht Conference on Earth System Governance Table 1 The New Earth System Governance Science and Implementation Plan: Process and Timeline In parallel with the New Directions process, a Harvesting
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Climate Change and Human Health: Risks and Responses
    Climate change and human health RISKS AND RESPONSES Editors A.J. McMichael The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia D.H. Campbell-Lendrum London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom C.F. Corvalán World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland K.L. Ebi World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, European Centre for Environment and Health, Rome, Italy A.K. Githeko Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kisumu, Kenya J.D. Scheraga US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA A. Woodward University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION GENEVA 2003 WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Climate change and human health : risks and responses / editors : A. J. McMichael . [et al.] 1.Climate 2.Greenhouse effect 3.Natural disasters 4.Disease transmission 5.Ultraviolet rays—adverse effects 6.Risk assessment I.McMichael, Anthony J. ISBN 92 4 156248 X (NLM classification: WA 30) ©World Health Organization 2003 All rights reserved. Publications of the World Health Organization can be obtained from Marketing and Dis- semination, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (tel: +41 22 791 2476; fax: +41 22 791 4857; email: [email protected]). Requests for permission to reproduce or translate WHO publications—whether for sale or for noncommercial distribution—should be addressed to Publications, at the above address (fax: +41 22 791 4806; email: [email protected]). The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
    [Show full text]
  • Download the Book of Abstracts Here
    Book of Abstracts 2019 Mexico Conference on Earth System Governance Oaxaca, Mexico, 6-8 November 2019 Version of 5 November 2019 The conference is hosted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, together with the Earth Sys- tem Governance Project. The 2019 Mexico Conference will be organized around the five analytical lenses structuring the new earth system governance research agenda, as captured in the 2018 Science and Implementation Plan; and a sixth stream focusing on specific issues band challenges relevant to the Latin American region. Contents Architecture and Agency .................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Democracy and Power .................................................................................................................................................................... 61 Justice and Allocation ..................................................................................................................................................................... 76 Anticipation and Imagination ....................................................................................................................................................... 100 Adaptiveness and Reflexivity ........................................................................................................................................................ 123 Socio-environmental impacts of economic globalization ...........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Anthropocene
    Anthropocene The Anthropocene is a proposed geologic epoch that redescribes humanity as a significant or even dominant geophysical force. The concept has had an uneven global history from the 1960s (apparently, it was used by Russian scientists from then onwards). The current definition of the Anthropocene refers to the one proposed by Eugene F. Stoermer in the 1980s and then popularised by Paul Crutzen. At present, stratigraphers are evaluating the proposal, which was submitted to their society in 2008. There is currently no definite proposed start date – suggestions include the beginnings of human agriculture, the conquest of the Americas, the industrial revolution and the nuclear bomb explosions and tests. Debate around the Anthropocene continues to be globally uneven, with discourse primarily taking place in developed countries. Achille Mbembe, for instance, has noted that ‘[t]his kind of rethinking, to be sure, has been under way for some time now. The problem is that we seem to have entirely avoided it in Africa in spite of the existence of a rich archive in this regard’ (2015). Especially in the anglophone sphere, the image of humanity as a geophysical force has made a drastic impact on popular culture, giving rise to a flood of Anthropocene and geology themed art and design exhibitions, music videos, radio shows and written publications. At the same time, the Anthropocene has been identified as a geophysical marker of global inequality due to its connections with imperialism, colonialism and capitalism. The biggest geophysical impact –in terms of greenhouse emissions, biodiversity loss, water use, waste production, toxin/radiation production and land clearance etc – is currently made by the so-called developed world.
    [Show full text]
  • The Changing Landscape of Climate Governance
    PENN: CURRENT RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT The Changing Landscape of Climate Governance The Role of Cities as Political Actors and Policy Implementers WILLIAM BURKE-WHITE Richard Perry Professor and Inaugural Director, Perry World House Professor of Law, Penn School of Law LAURA BARRON Program and Communications Manager, Penn Institute of Urban Research 2 Penn: Current Research on Sustainable Urban Development | The Changing Landscape of Climate Governance: Role of Cities as Political Actors and Policy Implementers FINDING THE POLITICAL WILL TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE: GLOBAL, NATIONAL, AND LOCAL PERSPECTIVES Addressing the impacts of climate change and limiting further impact is the most critical aspect of achieving global environmental sustainability, as laid out in the United Nation’s SDGs and New Urban Agenda. The experiences of the past decades, however, have demonstrated that stopping climate change is a challenge not only of effective implementation of mitigation and adaptation techniques, but also of finding the political will to undertake bold moves needed to deal with existing climate change and limit future global warming. Climate change, often described as a problem of the global commons, requires commitment and coordination across most, if not all, nation states. The bold moves needed today require significant political will to drive cooperation where problems are complex, time-horizons are long, interests poorly aligned, and institutions weak. Traditionally, climate politics has been focused at the international level of governance—through international institutions and international legal agreements among national governments that can work together to coordinate needed global responses (Bodansky 2001). International diplomatic meetings and agreements from Rio to Kyoto, Copenhagen to Paris, have been the locus of action for international political and legal commitments to address climate challenges.
    [Show full text]
  • Future Earth Initial Design
    Future Earth Initial Design 1 This report sets out the initial design of Future Earth, comprising a research framework and governance structure, preliminary reflections on communication and engagement, capacity-building and education strategies, and implementation guidelines. It was developed by the Future Earth Transition Team, a group of more than 30 researchers and experts from many countries and representative of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, as well as from international organisations, research funders and business. and dis ciplines. We learned a lot from each other over the two years of discussion. Steven Wilson and Deliang Chen, the current and for- mer Executive Directors of ICSU, were critical to the success of this project, travelling the world to ensure its success, and we are also Preface particularly grateful to Heide Hackmann, Executive Director of ISSC, who provided a sustained representation of the social science community throughout our work. We are particularly thankful for the con- structive engagement and invaluable contri- butions of the current leadership of the Global Environmental Change (GEC) programmes and their associated projects (the Internation- The transition to Future Earth has been a com- al Geosphere and Biosphere Programme, IBGP; plex, difficult and inspiring task — trying to the International Human Dimensions Pro- capture the urgency, seriousness and breadth gramme, IHDP; the World Climate Research of the future of our planet and its inhabitants, Programme, WCRP; DIVERSITAS – biodiversi- engaging a broad international community ty science; and the Earth System Science Part- of scientists, and building on the decades of nership, ESSP). Without the strong engage- research and collaboration that have already ment from GEC programme directors, chairs made important contributions to our under- of science committees and project leaders, standing.
    [Show full text]
  • Interactions Between Changing Climate and Biodiversity: Shaping Humanity's Future
    COMMENTARY Interactions between changing climate and biodiversity: Shaping humanity’s future COMMENTARY F. Stuart Chapin IIIa,1 and Sandra Dı´azb,c Scientists have known for more than a century about Harrison et al. (9) note that the climate−diversity potential human impacts on climate (1). In the last 30 y, relationship they document is consistent with a cli- estimates of these impacts have been confirmed and matic tolerance model in which the least drought- refined through increasingly precise climate assess- tolerant species are the first to be lost as climate ments (2). Other global-scale human impacts, including dries. According to this model, drought acts as a filter land use change, overharvesting, air and water pollu- that removes more-mesic–adapted species. Since the tion, and increased disease risk from antibiotic resis- end of the Eocene, about 37 million years ago, Cal- tance, have risen to critical levels, seriously jeopardizing ifornia’s ancient warm-temperate lineages, such as the prospects that future generations can thrive (3–5). redwoods, have retreated into more-mesic habitats, as Earth has entered a stage characterized by human more-drought–adapted lineages like oaks and madrone domination of critical Earth system processes (6–8). spread through California. Perhaps this history of Although the basic trajectories of these changes are declining mesic lineages will repeat itself, if Cal- well known, many of the likely consequences are ifornia’s climate continues to dry over the long term. shrouded in uncertainty because of poorly understood The Harrison study (9) documents several dimen- interactions among these drivers of change and there- sions of diversity that decline with drought.
    [Show full text]
  • Green Economy Or Green Utopia? Rio+20 and the Reproductive Labor Class
    Green Economy or Green Utopia? Rio+20 and the Reproductive Labor Class Ariel Salleh University of Sydney [email protected] Sociologists use the concept of class variously to explain and predict people's relation to the means of production, their earnings, living conditions, social standing, capacities, and political identification. With the rise of capitalist globalization, many sociologists focus on the transnational ruling class and new economic predicaments faced by industrial workers in the world-system (see, for example, Robinson and Harris 2000). Here I will argue that to understand and respond to the current global environmental crisis, another major class formation should be acknowledged - one defined by its materially regenerative activities under "relations of reproduction" (Salleh 2010). The salience of this hypothetical third class is demonstrated by the 2012 United Nations Rio+20 summit and its official "green economy" negotiating text The Future We Want (UNCSD 2012). Clearly, the question that begs to be asked is - who is the "we" in this international document, and whose "utopia" does it serve? Part of the answer is found in a recent G20 media release, suggesting that "current high energy prices open policy space for economic incentives to renewables [...] investors are looking for alternatives given the low interest rates in developed countries, a factor that presents an opportunity for green economy projects” (Calderon 2012). The UN, together with the transnational capitalist class, looks to technology and new institutional architectures to push against the limits of living ecologies, and these measures are given legitimation as "economic necessity." Yet empirically, it is peasants, mothers, fishers and gatherers working with natural thermodynamic processes who meet everyday needs for the majority of people on earth.
    [Show full text]
  • Collaborative Governance and the Implementation of the Ryan White Care Act: a Case Study of Hiv Health Services Planning Councils in Two South Florida Counties
    COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RYAN WHITE CARE ACT: A CASE STUDY OF HIV HEALTH SERVICES PLANNING COUNCILS IN TWO SOUTH FLORIDA COUNTIES by James K. Agbodzakey A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The College of Architecture, Urban and Public Affairs in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL December 2009 Copyright by James K. Agbodzakey 2009 ii VITA James K. Agbodzakey earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1999. In 2001, he was awarded graduate fellowships from Ohio University in Athens where he received a Masters of Arts degree in International Affairs and Masters of Public Administration degree. In 2005, he was also awarded a graduate teaching assistantship from the Florida Atlantic University’s School of Public Administration to pursue a Ph.D. in Public Administration. He received 2008 First Place FAU National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS) Nationwide President’s Award. He is a member of Pi Alpha Alpha, the NASPAA honor society. He interned with the United Nation’s Department of Social and Economic Affairs in 2005 and was a temporary project associate for the International Monetary Fund in 2005. He has also been a project associate for the FAU Public Procurement Research Center. He was a presenter at the Florida Political Science Association Conferences in Orlando and St. Petersburg in 2007 and 2008 respectively. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have been blessed in many ways and being given the opportunity to pursue graduate studies in the United States is one such blessing.
    [Show full text]
  • Analytical Environmental Agency 2 21St Century Frontiers 3 22 Four 4
    # Official Name of Organization Name of Organization in English 1 "Greenwomen" Analytical Environmental Agency 2 21st Century Frontiers 3 22 Four 4 350 Vermont 5 350.org 6 A Seed Japan Acao Voluntaria de Atitude dos Movimentos por Voluntary Action O Attitude of Social 7 Transparencia Social Movements for Transparency Acción para la Promoción de Ambientes Libres Promoting Action for Smokefree 8 de Tabaco Environments Ações para Preservação dos Recursos Naturais e 9 Desenvolvimento Economico Racional - APRENDER 10 ACT Alliance - Action by Churches Together 11 Action on Armed Violence Action on Disability and Development, 12 Bangladesh Actions communautaires pour le développement COMMUNITY ACTIONS FOR 13 integral INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT 14 Actions Vitales pour le Développement durable Vital Actions for Sustainable Development Advocates coalition for Development and 15 Environment 16 Africa Youth for Peace and Development 17 African Development and Advocacy Centre African Network for Policy Research and 18 Advocacy for Sustainability 19 African Women's Alliance, Inc. Afrique Internationale pour le Developpement et 20 l'Environnement au 21è Siècle 21 Agência Brasileira de Gerenciamento Costeiro Brazilian Coastal Management Agency 22 Agrisud International 23 Ainu association of Hokkaido 24 Air Transport Action Group 25 Aldeota Global Aldeota Global - (Global "small village") 26 Aleanca Ekologjike Europiane Rinore Ecological European Youth Alliance Alianza de Mujeres Indigenas de Centroamerica y 27 Mexico 28 Alianza ONG NGO Alliance ALL INDIA HUMAN
    [Show full text]
  • Capitalism and Earth System Governance: an Ecological Marxist Approach
    Capitalism and Earth System Governance: An Ecological Marxist Approach Michael J. Albert Global Environmental Politics, Volume 20, Number 2, May 2020, pp. 37-56 (Article) Published by The MIT Press For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/758097 [ Access provided at 16 Sep 2020 13:35 GMT from School of Oriental and African Studies ] Capitalism and Earth System Governance: An Ecological Marxist Approach • Michael J. Albert* Abstract Growing recognition of the Anthropocene era has led to a chorus of calls for Earth Sys- tem Governance (ESG). Advocates argue that humanity’s newfound sociotechnical pow- ers require institutional transformations at all scales of governance to wield these powers with wisdom and foresight. Critics, on the other hand, fear that these initiatives embody a technocratic impulse that aims to subject the planet to expert management without addressing the political-economic roots of the earth system crisis. This article proposes a more affirmative engagement with existing approaches to ESG while also building on these critiques. While advocates of ESG typically ignore the capitalistic roots of the earth system crisis and propose tepid reforms that risk authoritarian expressions, their critics also have yet to systematically consider the potential for more democratic and postcap- italist forms of ESG. In response, I propose an ecological Marxist approach based on a structural analysis of capitalism as the primary driver of the earth system crisis and an “ecosocialist” vision of ESG that subordinates the market to democratic planning at mul- tiple scales. I argue that an ecological Marxist perspective is needed to foreground the structural political-economic constraints on earth system stability, though existing ap- proaches to ESG can in turn inform ecosocialist strategies for global institutional design and democratization.
    [Show full text]
  • Uncorrected Transcript
    1 POVERTY-2016/05/24 JOHNS HOPKINS SAIS NITZE BUILDING, KENNEY AUDITORIUM HOW DO WE END ENERGY POVERTY? DEBATING SOLUTIONS FOR INCREASING GLOBAL ELECTRICITY ACCESS Washington, D.C. Tuesday, May 24, 2016 PARTICIPANTS: Introduction: TIM BOERSMA Fellow, Energy Security and Climate Initiative The Brookings Institution Moderator: LISA FRIEDMAN Editor ClimateWire Featured speakers: DANIEL KAMMEN Class of 1935 Distinguished Chair in Energy University of California, Berkeley TED NORDHAUS Co-founder and Research Director Breakthrough Institute * * * * * ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 706 Duke Street, Suite 100 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 2 POVERTY-2016/05/24 P R O C E E D I N G S MR. BOERSMA: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Tim Boersma, I'm a fellow with the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at Brookings. Intuitively I was going to say, welcome to Brookings, but we are at SAIS, and I want express my gratitude to our colleagues at SAIS for having us host this event here today. We are going to talk about energy poverty, and how to end energy poverty. I think the basic, sort of, data are well known to you. An estimated 1.2 billion people that lack any access to electricity today worldwide, and another estimated 2.7 billion that rely on traditional use of biomass for cooking, heating, and so on. And so, a massive challenge ahead, surely in the light of climate change, and that’s a topic we are going to be addressing today. And we have two excellent speakers who are going to help us navigate this discussion.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bottom-Up Alternative: the Mitigation Potential of Private Climate Governance After the Paris Agreement
    \\jciprod01\productn\H\HLE\42-2\HLE205.txt unknown Seq: 1 30-JUL-18 10:11 THE BOTTOM-UP ALTERNATIVE: THE MITIGATION POTENTIAL OF PRIVATE CLIMATE GOVERNANCE AFTER THE PARIS AGREEMENT Maria L. Banda* ABSTRACT The 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change has sought to inject renewed energy into the international climate regime. As a “bottom-up” treaty, however, it allows States to set their own emissions targets. Even before the U.S. withdrawal, States Parties’ commitments fell far short of what is required to achieve the treaty’s objectives. The low level of State ambition, coupled with the lack of an international enforcement mechanism, means that pri- vate initiatives—including through courts, investor actions, and voluntary business commit- ments—will be critical, especially in the U.S., if the climate regime is to deliver on its goals. This Article seeks to contribute to both the theoretical and empirical literature on private climate governance and develop a richer understanding of bottom-up options for the imple- mentation of the Paris Agreement where State leadership is weak or lacking. First, it develops an analytical framework to evaluate the effectiveness, or the mitigation potential, of private climate governance. Second, it provides a critical assessment of three promising forms of pri- vate climate governance: (a) disclosure of company emissions and climate risks; (b) voluntary commitments to reduce emissions; and (c) carbon labeling. The Article shows empirically that these private initiatives face a number of constraints that make them unlikely to generate significant mitigation action in the near term without regulatory backing. However, other bottom-up options, such as climate litigation, can play an important role in closing the ambi- tion deficit by increasing government accountability and facilitating the de facto implementa- tion of the Paris Agreement in the U.S.
    [Show full text]