Governing Climate Change

Abstract

The book Governing Climate Change sheds an inspiring light on our understanding of the international negotiations on climate change. By addressing climate change as a global problem, most research tends to focus on the role of states as they are the primary participants in international institutions and have the authority to sign up to international accords. The authors of this book start from a broader perspective. They argue that by framing climate change as an international problem, the influence of non-state actors and of other levels of decision making – local, regional and national – is neglected. In their view a state-centric approach overlooks the state’s dependence on economic actors, particularly in key sectors (such as energy) and on other stakeholders. Moreover, they reject the notion that the climate change negotiation process can be considered as a top-down process in which decisions and authority flow downwards from one level to the next in a straightforward, linear way. The authors do not deny that the nation state remains the dominant force, but they emphasize the need to take into account the influence of non-state actors at various levels of decision making. As a former Minister of Spatial Planning and the Environment being active in the international climate change negotiations from Bali (2007) to Copenhagen (2009), I agree with the authors’ view on the governance of the climate change problem. Indeed, nation states do not act in isolation. They need the support of a variety of actors before they can engage in the formal international negotiations. At the state level, the politicians should agree on the position to be defended. In a western democracy like the Netherlands this means that the Cabinet has to agree upon a formal document and that the majority in Parliament supports the content. Beforehand, negotiations have taken place behind closed doors with crucial non-state actors, such as employer organizations, trade unions and NGOs, and with local authorities. These actors are also engaged themselves in climate change initiatives. The political position adopted by the Cabinet and Parliament is then brought to the EU negotiation table where deals are made among EU Member States. On the road to Copenhagen several rounds of such negotiations at state and EU level took place. At the same time, international negotiation processes are being prepared by the secretariat of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). Within this framework government officials affiliated with the UNFCCC negotiate what text to present at the next annual meeting of the Conference of the Parties, which is attended by Ministers of the Environment. To prepare the international negotiations, politicians also hold informal talks and meetings with other state representatives and with non-state actors at the international level. For instance, in order to speed up the negotiation process on the road to Copenhagen, the chairman of the Copenhagen meeting, Connie Hedegaard, at that time the Danish Environment Minister, set up the so-called Greenland Dialogue. This was a group of about 25–30 Environment Ministers representing all parts of the world (China, US, Brazil, India, Mexico, Africa, EU, etc.). The group, in which I also participated, met informally on a regular basis. Every time we gathered, we made progress. So, we were hopeful that enough preparatory work was done at the political level to seal the deal in Copenhagen. Parallel to this Greenland dialogue process, the G8, G20, the Major Economies Forum and some other political bodies also met in advance. And here too, steps were made. However, the closer we came to Copenhagen, the more geopolitical obstacles blocked the decision-making process.