The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Fariborz Zelli

Fariborz Zelli

Professor | Principal Investigator BECC

Fariborz Zelli

International Governance: Polycentric Governing by and beyond the UNFCCC

Author

  • Harro van Asselt
  • Fariborz Zelli

Editor

  • Andrew Jordan
  • Dave Huitema
  • Harro van Asselt
  • Johanna Forster JordanHuitemavan Asselt

Summary, in English

The Paris Agreement seemingly reaffirmed the central place occupied by the regime established by the UNFCCC in the international governance of climate change.
Although the UNFCCC can be viewed as a form of ‘monocentric’ governance, it has become increasingly clear that the UNFCCC operates as part of a polycentric governance system. Due to the physical and socio-economic interconnections between climate change and a range of other issue areas, institutional overlaps between the climate regime and other international institutions from other domains such as trade and investment, human rights, other environmental issues (e.g. ozone depletion and biodiversity loss) and specific sectors (e.g. aviation and maritime shipping) are inevitable.
In this chapter, we systematically sketch the domain of international climate change governance from the angle of polycentricity, focusing on intergovernmental multilateral institutions. We pursue two objectives: characterising this governance system as polycentric; and then discussing to what extent certain implications of this polycentricity have already materialised in this system.

Department/s

  • Department of Political Science
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2018-04-01

Language

English

Pages

29-46

Publication/Series

Governing Climate Change : Polycentricity in Action?

Document type

Book chapter

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Topic

  • Political Science

Keywords

  • polycentricity
  • climate change
  • UNFCCC
  • global governance
  • Kyoto protocol
  • complexity
  • fragmentation
  • institutions and institutional change

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 9781108418126