Preparing the playing field: climate club governance of the G20, Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and Under2 Coalition

Charlotte Unger,Sonja Thielges

doi:10.1007/s10584-021-03189-8

Abstract

International climate policy is increasingly shaped by alternative forms of governance. Coalitions of national, subnational, and/or non-state actors have the potential to address the global challenge of climate change beyond the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process. While initially such “clubs” spurred hope that they could be an option to achieve climate action more effectively than the UNFCCC, more recently, their role has been seen as preparing and orchestrating climate policy. In spite of its conceptual proliferation, literature on climate clubs stops short in examining practical evidence and conducting analyses beyond categorization and labelling of climate clubs. This article aims at contributing to filling this gap with a comparative perspective on three specific governance initiatives that act on different governance levels: the G20, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), and the Under2 Coalition. What contribution do these club-like initiatives make to global climate governance and how does it relate to existing structures such as the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC process? Our paper applies central aspects of clubs research, namely, membership, public goods, and the provision of additional benefits as an analytical framework to examine the three cases. We find that these club initiatives, though highly diverse in their origin and membership, make a similar contribution to international climate governance. Their largest contribution lies in preparing emissions reductions through raising awareness, orchestrating different actors and actions, and establishing a large cooperation network. They complement the UNFCCC and especially the Paris Agreement.

Highlights

The development of the international climate policy landscape over the first two decades of the twenty-first century leads to two observations: First, efforts and actors in global climate governance have increased and diversified
Despite a multitude of new initiatives, policies, and regulations, the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) latest stocktaking still expects Nationally Determined Contributions” (NDCs) to lead to a temperature increase of at least 3 °C by the end of this century (UNEP 2020)
The main finding of this paper is that all three cases have an important role in global climate governance

Summary

Introduction

The development of the international climate policy landscape over the first two decades of the twenty-first century leads to two observations: First, efforts and actors in global climate governance have increased and diversified. Many non-traditional climate policy actors have taken up climate change as a major topic. The process of the Paris Agreement (PA) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adopted in 2015, faces major shortcomings. Signatories have committed to national efforts to combat climate change in “Nationally Determined Contributions” (NDCs) and jointly set a goal of keeping global warming at “well below 2 °C.”. Despite a multitude of new initiatives, policies, and regulations, the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) latest stocktaking still expects NDCs to lead to a temperature increase of at least 3 °C by the end of this century (UNEP 2020) Signatories have committed to national efforts to combat climate change in “Nationally Determined Contributions” (NDCs) and jointly set a goal of keeping global warming at “well below 2 °C.” Despite a multitude of new initiatives, policies, and regulations, the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) latest stocktaking still expects NDCs to lead to a temperature increase of at least 3 °C by the end of this century (UNEP 2020)

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