The Politics of Transparency in Global Climate Governance

Abstract

Transparency is becoming ever more central to multilateral efforts to address pressing global challenges, including climate change. A push for greater transparency is now a dominant feature of global climate politics and governance. It is widely assumed that greater transparency of country climate actions will further state-to-state accountability, enhance mutual trust and stimulate more ambitious climate actions from all. Yet, these presumed relationships between transparency, accountability, trust and effective collective action remain very little analyzed, both conceptually and empirically. The papers in this panel address this urgent research gap. Collectively, they explore whether and under what conditions transparency can help to transcend (rather than reinforce) long-standing and entrenched political conflicts within global climate governance, as is widely assumed. The papers shed light, inter alia, on how novel transparency arrangements (reporting and review systems) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its 2015 Paris Agreement are functioning. Questions explored include: To what extent are countries engaging in these systems, and in what ways does such engagement result in more accountable, trustworthy and ambitious collective climate actions from all? In addressing this, we cover a range of climate change actions and impacts, including transparency of mitigation actions, adaptation, and transparency of support. Given the contested but ever more central role of an ‘enhanced transparency framework’ in the 2015 Paris Agreement, we make an important and timely contribution to scientific and policy debates in the run-up to multilateral climate negotiations planned for November 2021.

Title	Details
Negotiating the Rulebook of the Paris Agreement: The Politics of Transparency of Climate Change Adaptation	View Paper Details
Opening the Black Box of Transparency in Multilateral Climate Governance: Causal Pathways of Reporting and Review	View Paper Details
Disclosure or obfuscation in climate finance? Assessing performance in multilateral transparency arrangements	View Paper Details
The (in-)transparency of negative emissions: Rendering visible how countries aim to realize aspirational Net-Zero emission targets	View Paper Details