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Black and white photo of Thomas Hickmann. Photo.

Thomas Hickmann

Associate professor | Associate senior lecturer | Recognised Teaching Practitioner

Black and white photo of Thomas Hickmann. Photo.

The Evolution of International Environmental Bureaucracies : How the Climate Secretariat is Loosening Its Straitjacket

Author

  • Thomas Hickmann
  • Oscar Widerberg
  • Markus Lederer
  • Philipp Pattberg

Editor

  • Helge Jörgens
  • Nina Kolleck
  • Mareike Weil

Summary, in English

Focusing on three initiatives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat – the Momentum for Change Initiative, the Lima–Paris Action Agenda, and the Non-state Actor Zone for Climate Action – this chapter studies how an international environmental bureaucracy can evolve from a low-key and servant-like secretariat to an actor in its own right. It argues that international environmental secretariats increasingly take on the role of an orchestrator that seeks to shape policy outcomes through changing the behavior of others. Using orchestration as a conceptual lens, the chapter identifies new types of influence of international bureaucracies. The forms of influence that the UNFCCC Secretariat exerts include in particular (i) awareness-raising, (ii) norm-building, and (iii) mobilization. This new way of how soft power is deployed underscores the increasingly proactive role of the UNFCCC Secretariat. The chapter concludes that the UNFCCC Secretariat is currently “loosening its straitjacket” by gradually expanding its original mandate and spectrum of activity. It is no longer a passive bystander but has adopted new roles and functions in the global endeavor to cope with climate change.

Department/s

  • Department of Political Science
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • LU Profile Area: Nature-based future solutions

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Pages

57-72

Publication/Series

International Public Administrations in Environmental Governance : The Role of Autonomy, Agency, and the Quest for Attention

Document type

Book chapter

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Topic

  • Political Science
  • Other Social Sciences

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 9781009383479
  • ISBN: 9781009383486