Climate Governance Research Articles

Narratives Behind Climate Strategy in Finland

The 2015 Paris Agreement (PA) represents a profound change in global climate governance becoming a blueprint for other governance arenas. However, the varying success of reaching the national climate targets, unstable security, and growing right-wing populism poses a question of which direction the EU climate policy is moving after ten years of PA. The success of this agreement depends heavily on the effectiveness of national climate change policies wherein political parties have a critical role in developing these policies while also impacting public attitudes on climate change. We use the case of Finnish climate strategy as a case of national climate strategy. We analyzed Finnish climate policy documents by using Ostrom’s IAD Framework and Multiple stream framework analysis to create the narratives behind the Finnish climate strategy. The Institutional Analysis and Development framework (IAD) is a conceptual tool that Ostrom and her colleagues developed to analyze and understand the complex interactions and dynamics within institutions that govern common-pool resources. Our research question is: What are the narratives behind the Finnish climate strategy? Key words: Climate strategy, narrative, IAD framework, Multiple stream analysis framework

The dramaturgical infrastructure of counter-summitry – ethnographic insights from the Glasgow climate conference

ABSTRACT The annual UN climate conferences synchronize major social worlds, including politics, media, business, science, and law. They therefore attract anyone interested in high-profile performances such as protest action. With the post-Paris turn in global environmental governance, scholarly interest in theatrical aspects of climate governance is increasing. Activism at climate conferences, however, has not yet been studied through a dramaturgical lens. We propose the concept of ‘dramaturgical infrastructure’ to complement Goffman’s focus on self-presentation with the material and immaterial context beyond the micro-level of situated interactional practices. Based on fieldwork at the 2021 climate conference in Glasgow, we describe how activists draw on and mobilize a dramaturgical infrastructure of scripts, spaces, rituals, and requisites for their performances, and how this results in role-taking on the Glasgow stage. We identify the roles of the watchdog, the participant, the disrupter, and the connector, each with distinctive patterns of compliance with or distancing from post-Paris climate governance and the news media. The dramaturgical perspective suggests that climate conferences provide encounters that educate activists to be aware of the component of self-presentation in their activism and to design performances for high public, policy, and media attention.

Climate governance and industrial ecological transformation

Climate governance and industrial ecological transformation

Driving the Future: Transition Finance under the EU Framework

The EU sustainable finance framework identifies four key elements for transition finance: taxonomy, credible transition plans, science-based targets, and climate benchmarks. This article delves into each element to help financial market participants better understand and leverage European Union (EU) tools, enhancing their transition finance strategies and supporting companies in developing credible transition plans. It concludes that taxonomy, CapEx investments and plans, GHG emission reduction targets, and annual absolute emissions reductions are crucial for validating credible transition plans, with a strong emphasis on phasing out fossil fuels and ensuring robust corporate climate governance.

Fuelling injustice? Safeguarding equity in anti‐fossil fuel norms

AbstractThis article explores anti‐fossil fuel norms (AFFNs), which set behavioral standards for phasing out practices and processes across the fossil fuel supply chain. In recent years, AFFNs have emerged and become increasingly institutionalized in global climate governance. However, they remain contested and have not yet achieved widespread acceptance. Much of the contestation concerns the perceived equity of these norms. Drawing on insights from the literature on AFFNs and expert interviews, this article investigates equity‐related issues that arise in the context of four key AFFNs: phasing out coal‐fired power, phasing out oil and gas, ending public financing for fossil fuels, and reforming fossil fuel subsidies. We find that each of these norms is well placed to contribute to a shift away from a fossil fuel‐based economy. However, these norms are often framed in ways that do not account for the distributional impacts of this shift, which may lead to unintended and inequitable consequences. We conclude that AFFNs need to be developed and deployed to actively consider the needs of marginalized communities. Policymakers and non‐governmental organizations can work together to develop norms that prioritize addressing equity and distributional justice concerns in the transition away from fossil fuels.

Analysis of China's Social Media Outreach Strategies - Taking the Climate Change Issue as an Example

This paper explores China's social media outreach strategies on the issue of climate change, particularly through the platforms Douyin (the domestic version of TikTok) and China Global Television Network (CGTN). Utilizing agenda-setting and framing theories, the paper analyzes how China employs social media to shape its international image, disseminate policy ideas, and play a significant role in global climate governance. The study finds that Douyin, with its vivid visual content and high interactivity, connects climate change policies with the daily lives of the public, while CGTN's authoritative reporting showcases China's leadership in global climate governance. The paper summarizes the successful strategies of China's social media in climate change advocacy and proposes suggestions for improvement and international cooperation.

Mainstreaming decarbonization through local climate budgets in Norwegian municipalities

ABSTRACT Climate budgets are increasingly being used in local climate governance, but it is not clear whether they have the potential to drive systemic change toward decarbonization. This study uses a political dynamics of decarbonization framework to assess the transformative potential of municipal climate budgets to catalyze changes across cultural, economic, political, and technological systems to overcome carbon lock-in. Document analysis and interviews with climate budget experts from Oslo, Fredrikstad, Hamar, Bergen, Arendal, Bærum, Asker and the county of Agder in Norway were employed in this study to identify and discuss transformative conditions for decarbonization. Climate budgets are used to integrate climate change mitigation as a core element of municipal governance. This approach aims to integrate climate change mitigation into existing decision-making mechanisms and expand the mandates of municipal departments and agencies in executing and overseeing climate actions. Local climate budgets are also being used to catalyze changes across cultural, economic, political, and technological systems through the alignment of new laws, regulations, financial and institutional capacities, inter-municipal coalitions, and cooperation with the private sector. However, climate budgeting in cities and local governments faces multiple barriers. These include a lack of jurisdiction over emissions accounted for in climate budgets; inadequate legal frameworks to support municipal climate actions; and competition for financial and institutional resources with other public services expected by city residents. These findings deepen our understanding of the transformative change potential in local climate action experiments by emphasizing the role of political dynamics in overcoming carbon lock-in.

Carbon neutralization frontier tracking

This systematic study on the international research trends in carbon neutrality underscores its critical role in combating global warming and advancing sustainable development. By leveraging the “Web of Science Core Collection” databases and employing CiteSpace software for visual analysis, we examined 2223 research papers to track the influence and trends of key countries, institutions, and authors. Our results reveal a significant increase in publication volume, indicating a robust development potential for carbon neutrality research. The study also identifies environmental science, environmental research, and energy and fuel science as central interdisciplinary hubs, highlighting the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration. Notably, China leads in publication output but has room for improvement in citation impact, suggesting a need for enhanced research quality and international visibility. The study's findings are instrumental for guiding future research directions, policy-making, and interdisciplinary cooperation, particularly in the fields of environmental science and energy, to accelerate progress towards carbon neutrality and global climate governance.

Between science, authority, and responsibility: Exploring institutional logics to rethink climate governance

Between science, authority, and responsibility: Exploring institutional logics to rethink climate governance

Global climate governance inequality unveiled through dynamic influence assessment

This study defines the concept of major and minor countries and establishes a multidimensional and dynamic assessment system to evaluate the influence of countries participating in global climate governance. We systematically calculate 45 indicators for 53 countries across 9 global climate negotiation interest groups over the seven years. Our findings indicate a significant difference in influence between major and minor countries. This gap is particularly significant regarding losses incurred from climate disasters, with a more than fourfold difference between the top 25% and the bottom 25% in the influence rankings. The influence-climate disaster Index Gini coefficient further indicates that climate governance is characterized by extreme inequality. We argue that this phenomenon arises because those with more decisive influence in global climate governance do not bear losses from climate disasters commensurate with their influence. Therefore, their willingness to participate in climate governance is lower than those who suffer greater consequences.

To Enact or to Implement?

Abstract This study analyses Ghana’s climate-change legal and policy frameworks, pinpointing significant gaps and offering targeted recommendations to bolster the nation’s resilience against climate change. Despite Ghana’s commitments under international agreements and the formulation of national policies, challenges persist in policy implementation, sectoral integration, research, stakeholder engagement, funding and adaptation strategies. The paper argues for a robust, integrated approach to enhance Ghana’s climate governance, highlighting the necessity for improved implementation capacity, cross-sectoral policy harmonisation, enhanced climate data collection, active stakeholder participation, innovative financing and a stronger focus on adaptation and resilience. Key recommendations advocate for political commitment, collaborative efforts and resource mobilisation to ensure effective climate action. This condensed analysis contributes to the broader dialogue on climate-change management in emerging economies, offering insights for policy-makers and stakeholders on advancing climate resilience and sustainable development.

Aprovechamiento de residuos: propuesta en la producción de abonos orgánicos - alimento animal en la Mini-industria La Guajira

The use of waste in the production of organic fertilizers and animal feed, in the La Guajira Mini-industry, in the agro-productive scenario of the CPA July 26; The result is inserted into the Project: Municipal climate governance and sustainable agroforestry production of foods with low emissions and adapted to climate change in Cienfuegos and Pinar del Río, Cuba; descriptive, explanatory, non-experimental study, using theoretical and empirical methods. Results: characterization of the Mini-industry, and design of the proposed actions. Conclusions: carrying out a characterization from a social, economic and environmental perspective of the La Guajira Mini-industry, facilitated the understanding of potentialities - weaknesses in the treatment of waste, showed the need to propose new alternatives to contribute to the adaptation to the climate change, the design of a proposal of actions that articulates with the objectives of the Projects and in synergy with the Territorial Social Economic Development Strategy, promotes alternatives for the productive chain in the use of organic fertilizers and animal feed, all of which recognizes the social economic value of the La Guajira Mini-industry, favoring the development of the agro-productive scenario of the CPA July 26.

Heating up the divide: Climate change and the quest for inclusive growth in urban China

Climate change has profoundly affected human production and development, and also brought new challenges to China's goal of achieving inclusive economic growth. Using the data of 273 cities in China from 2001 to 2019, this research evaluates the impact of climate change on urban inclusive economic growth by constructing a temperature bin variable according to the daily average temperature. It is found that with the temperature bin [18 °C, 21 °C) as the benchmark group, both temperature rise and fall have a negative influence on inclusive economic growth. Notably, the adverse effects of high temperatures (above 27 °C) are statistically and economically significant, exhibiting a trend of increasing magnitude. The mechanism test shows that high temperature affects the inclusive growth level of the urban economy mainly by exacerbating the urban‒rural income gap. The heterogeneity analysis found that cities located in hot regions, southern regions or coastal areas are more sensitive to high temperatures and experience more prominent effects. This research holds significant practical implications for China to achieve a win‒win situation of balanced economic development and climate governance.

Agenda-setting and policy leadership for municipal climate change adaptation

Climate change presents a pervasive global threat to billions of people as well as ecosystems. Global mitigation policy failures mean we must now urgently adapt to projected climate impacts. While local government is expected to play a vital role in climate change adaptation, major breakdowns are occurring in local governments’ ability to implement adaptation responses. Studies point to the importance of two key factors underpinning successful municipal climate change adaptation – supportive leadership and an authorising environment for adaptation. But few studies provide in-depth analysis of these factors and how they play out in practice. This paper reports the results of research addressing this knowledge gap, drawing on analysis of leadership in four Australian local governments (municipal councils). Twenty-five local government elected officials, executive leaders, and staff required to operationalise leaders’ decisions were interviewed. Interviews examined leaders’ role and influence in climate change adaptation and their receptiveness to mainstreaming. Results show that whether leaders consider climate risk on their policy agenda is highly variable and subject to factors such as: public mood and community expectations; issue salience; the presence of dedicated policy entrepreneurs to champion a response; and focusing events that heighten the urgency of adaptation. We identify three concrete opportunities to mainstream municipal climate adaptation responses: enhance issue salience within leaders; leverage networks of influence; and strengthen formal systems of municipal climate governance.

Resisting Post‐Political Adaptation to Climate Change: How a Small Community Stood Up to Big Development

AbstractRecent critical scholarship has brought attention to local resistance in the spaces of adaptation, with reported instances of local communities rejecting planned adaptation interventions around the world. As adaptation funding is only expected to grow, so should our understanding of this resistance. In this article, I investigate one such dispute where residents of a small village in São Tomé and Príncipe refused to participate in an adaptation project implemented by the national government and the United Nations Development Programme. I ground my analysis in the literature on post‐politics and discuss the community's resistance as a Rancièrian “political interruption” of the post‐political adaptation configuration in the country. I also investigate the factors that arguably led to local resistance, including the residents’ disillusion with what I term Big Development, and their political subjectivation through a local grassroots initiative. The paper concludes with reflections on countering the post‐politics of adaptation as a prerequisite for more democratic and equitable local climate governance.

Envisioning ecopolitical futures: Reading climate fiction as political theory

Scholarship on how speculative knowledges can contribute to envisioning sustainable futures is thriving. There is less attention to the specific ways in which political theory as speculative knowledge is relevant to these scholarly discussions. This article fosters this link by suggesting reading climate fiction as political theory. The article follows a four-step analysis. First, it clarifies the importance of pluralising and decolonising the knowledges through which climate change is engaged politically. Second, it introduces the concept of ecopolitical imaginary to capture collective visions for sustainable futures, showing the relevance of the theorising endeavour. Third, it elucidates the idea that placing political theory and climate fiction in dialogue can help envisage alternative ecopolitical imaginaries for future world ordering. Finally, it reads Robinson’s Ministry for the Future as an experiment in political thinking: an ecopolitical imaginary that helps to think through the challenges involved in countering the colonial logic of global climate governance and the Eurocentric universalism underpinning it. The overarching argument is that reading climate fiction as political theory offers insight into envisioning just sustainable futures.

Judicialization of Global Climate Governance: In Defence of the Paris Agreement

Abstract This article questions the effect that the delegation of global climate governance to the international judiciary may have on climate action. It argues that the underlying premise of the judicialization movement—namely, the existence of a broad international consensus as to the objectives of global climate change risk management—is contradicted by evidence, such as political declarations by governments, countries’ nationally determined contributions, and domestic court judgments. Governments brought to court resist propositions that domestic or international legal norms subject them to quantitative emission reduction obligations that can be “objectively” determined on the basis of best available science, and national judiciaries make conflicting findings on the implications of science for climate policy. In this context, renouncement of the “bottom-up” Paris model which was designed specifically to address the complex landscape of diverse interests and risk perceptions across world regions and societies may have a chilling, rather than galvanizing, effect on climate action.

A review of global carbon emission management studies

<p>Under the background of climate warming, the importance of global carbon emission management has become more and more significant. This article reviews and organizes the existing literature on carbon emission management, focusing on the research status from the perspectives of economic instruments for carbon reduction and international cooperation. It explores the economic effects of different policy tools and the emission reduction measures of various countries. This article intends to see the progress and shortcomings of global climate governance through the organization of past research results and provide directions for future research.</p>

Climate change mitigation and women’s economic empowerment

In Pakistan, a country acutely vulnerable to climate change, this study delved into the gendered dynamics of climate sensitivity. It analyzed the correlation between gender and climate vulnerability, with a particular focus on the disproportionate influences on women and the efficacy of adaptation policies. The results showed stark gender disparities in health outcomes, with women more susceptible to the harmful effects of extreme weather events. Women in rural areas struggle to maintain their livelihoods due to water and pasture scarcity, affecting the cattle industry. Additionally, women in agriculture face economic hardships, resource constraints, and societal barriers that compound the adverse effects of climate change on their livelihoods. The paucity of food and water presents significant concerns, resulting in malnutrition and health hazards for women. Women in rural locations are compelled to depend on detrimental fuel sources due to energy shortages, which adversely affect their respiratory health. Conversely, in metropolitan settings, women have limitations in accessing vital services. The study highlights the importance of implementing policies that are sensitive to gender issues and include women in the decision-making processes related to climate change in order to establish communities that are able to withstand and recover from adverse conditions. The policy implications encompass several measures such as adapting to climate change, ensuring women's participation, investing in assistance for rural livelihoods, managing disasters, and promoting gender equality in climate governance. It is crucial to raise awareness and educate people about the gender-specific impacts of climate change in order to strengthen resilience.

Challenges and Controversies to the European CBAM from a Legal Perspective

The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), proposed by the European Union to combat carbon leakage, presents a complex landscape of opportunities and challenges in the realm of global climate governance. This paper explores the problems and controversies surrounding CBAM, including potential WTO incompatibility, violations of UNFCCC principles, and complexities in carbon accounting. It also examines the potential impact of CBAM on developing countries and offers a range of suggested solutions. These solutions encompass designing domestic carbon markets in alignment with the European model, implementing policy and regulatory reforms, fostering China-European bilateral relations, and emphasizing international cooperation and adherence to established legal frameworks. Additionally, at the enterprise level, strategies to invest in green technologies, establish comprehensive carbon accounting systems, and adapt to the evolving low-carbon economy are proposed. By addressing these challenges and embracing these strategies, nations and businesses can contribute to a more sustainable and equitable global climate governance framework.