eu

rop

ean

cap

acity

bu

ildin

g

initia

tive e

cbi

Climate Governance

Emily Ojoo-Massawa

eu

rop

ean

cap

acity

bu

ildin

g

initia

tive

initia

tive e

uro

péen

ne d

e re

nfo

rcem

ent d

es ca

pacité

s

ecbi

for sustained capacity building in support of international climate change negotiations

pour un renforcement durable des capacités en appui aux négociations internationales sur les changements climatiques

eu

rop

ean

cap

acity

bu

ildin

g

initia

tive e

cbi

Introduction• Introduction

• Forums engaging in the debate

• Synergies with other International Agreements

• Fragmentation in the debate?

• Impacts on the G77

eu

rop

ean

cap

acity

bu

ildin

g

initia

tive e

cbi

Introduction• Scientific evidence for climate change requires no debate.But while the problem of

anthropogenic climate change is gaining renewed attention by the media and the wider in particular due to increase in extreme climatic events, the institutional architecture in place seems to be rather incapable of effectively addressing climate change.

• A major obstacle that has received relatively little attention is the increasing fragmentation of global climate governance

• Policy fragmentation…Policies at play in the area of carbon trading, the emissions trading system of the European Union (EU),CDM,Voluntary trading schemes independent initiatives taken by U.SA. An important distinction can be made between compliance (or mandatory) markets and non-compliance (or voluntary)markets.

• Actor fragmentation….. extends to governments, where we can distinguish at least three different groups: industrialized countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and committed to limit their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of five percent by 2012; Major country that rejects Kyoto, but intends to develop alternative regulatory approaches and architectures of international co-operation; and developing countries that support Kyoto in principle, and have ratified it, but do not need to limit or reduce their emissions within the first commitment period.

• While some nations hope to maintain a universal approach towards climate governance, others seemingly work towards new forms of a more fragmented and flexible order.

eu

rop

ean

cap

acity

bu

ildin

g

initia

tive e

cbi

Introduction (cont)• The future of global climate governance is currently

negotiated in two different ad hoc working groups, AWG-KP and AWGLCA

• Difficult to generalise the position of different groups of Parties, as national circumstances relating to global warming vary widely

• Developing countries suffer –ve impacts and fear emission limitations would compromise their economic development

• A1 Parties driven by competitiveness concerns are reluctant to agree on taking the deep emission cuts in line with the science.

eu

rop

ean

cap

acity

bu

ildin

g

initia

tive e

cbi

Forums discussing climate change

• G8+5,G emitters• BASIC• New international alliances • Other treaties that relate to climate change (, the UN

Convention on Desertification, CBD, Montreal Protocol, Oceans and seas, Energy, Trade and Investments(WTO))

• Notwithstanding the diverse instruments, the main body of international law on climate change is to be found in the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol, as well as the decisions taken by the COP and the COP/CMP

5

eu

rop

ean

cap

acity

bu

ildin

g

initia

tive e

cbi

A fragmentation?

• The difficulty in reaching an agreement in Copenhagen has opened the debate. Are there other ways to address climate change?

• Call into question the representativeness of multilateral negotiations and their decision making procedures

• Why the sprouting of groups? Due to the sheer variety of interests among the developing countries hence voices of the vulnerable could be heard?Is there need to rethink the current groupings?

• Problem is not strictly cooperation among a large number of countries,difficulty lies in the diverging(or incompatible) preferences among members of the group

• What is the impact of this fragmentation for the G77?• How can countries position themselves to avoid being

marginalised?6

eu

rop

ean

cap

acity

bu

ildin

g

initia

tive e

cbi

Regional governance: Exchange of information and planning

• The African Union Commission (AUC);New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)

• Conference on the Environment (AMCEN);The African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW)

• Sub-region organizations • IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre

(ICPAC);Economic Community of Eastern and Southern Africa- COMESA;Southern African Development Community- SADC East African Community – EAC;Economic Community of West African States – ECOWAS,African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD);Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS);etc

eu

rop

ean

cap

acity

bu

ildin

g

initia

tive e

cbi

Local/National Governance

• National governance structures: how to organize the debate within government, between ministries, but other with the other branches?

• How do subnational governments articulate? What role do they or should they play?

• How is climate change addressed by different political parties, or different groups of interest?

• How do you guarantee the participation of all key stakeholders in decisionmaking (ex. REDD+ consultation processes)

eu

rop

ean

cap

acity

bu

ildin

g

initia

tive e

cbi

Topics for discussion

• The discusssion on climate change in new forums seems inevitable (?). How do you guarantee that such a fragmentation does not affect the transparency/equity of the negotiating process?

• What is the importance of regional forums for negotiating/implementing? How do we stimulate regional cooperation?

• How do you stimulate national/subnational debates without losing agility in the negotiations?