The Reconfiguration of Authority in Global Climate Governance: How Transnational Climate Initiatives Relate to the International Climate Regime

In the past few years, various authors have observed major shifts in the location of authority in global climate governance (e.g. Jagers and Stripple 2003; Betsill and Bulkeley 2006; Bäckstrand 2008; Pattberg and Stripple 2008; Andonova, Betsill and Bulkeley 2009; Bulkeley and Newell 2010; Hoffmann 2011; Pattberg 2012; Green 2014). They argue that the growing involvement of non-nation-state actors in authoritative decision-making has generated a “shift in the centre of gravity in climate governance away from traditional state-centric multilateral processes to multilevel governance whereby diverse, decentralised initiatives (…) form the basis for the global response to climate change” (Bernstein et al. 2010: 171). Many of these authors claim that multilateral treaty-making has lost much of its spark, and highlight the emergence of bottom-up climate governance arrangements, such as transnational city networks, private certification schemes and business self-regulation. Scholars have conducted several case studies about these newly emerging climate initiatives and conceive them as new “spheres of authority” (Rosenau 1997; 1999; 2007) in global climate politics. In particular, they contend that the authority of state-based forms of governance is increasingly challenged through the proliferation of bottom-up climate initiatives. However, only little attempt has been made thus far to thoroughly analyze the interaction and interplay between the wide variety of bottom-up climate governance arrangements and the intergovernmental level. Therefore, this project aims to address this research gap. Building upon the concept of authority, it explores the relationship between bottom-up climate initiatives and the international climate regime. The empirical findings presented in this dissertation suggest that the development of bottom-up governance arrangements does not lead to a shift of authority away from existing modes of inter-state cooperation towards non-nation-state actors. Instead, what can be observed in global climate politics is a reconfiguration of authority, which only reinforces the centrality of the international climate regime. In particular, many bottom-up climate governance arrangements use the international climate regime as a point of reference and have adopted various rules and procedures from international climate agreements. Thus, this dissertation demonstrates that multilateral treaty-making continues to be more important than many scholars and policy-makers suppose.