Global Climate Governance: Continued Action Under Pressure - Panel 1

Abstract

Human-induced climate change remains one of the most pressing policy challenges of our time. As global temperatures rise, the impacts of climate change continue to be felt more and more deeply. Since its recognition in 1988, almost four decades have passed and climate change gov-ernance has ballooned into a regime complex of institutions, actors, and initiatives. Whilst this regime has booked successes over the years, such as in terms of emissions inventories, transpar-ency, and policy ambition, a large implementation gap remains as global emissions continue to rise. Moreover, many key issues remain unanswered, such as climate justice and the proper ap-plication of the principle of common, but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabili-ties. In addition to the challenges within the regime, climate governance is increasingly under exter-nal pressure. Most notably, the United States has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, the UNFCCC, the IPCC, and a myriad of other multilateral institutions. International negotiations on a plastics treaty as well as a net zero shipping framework have also failed. Increased geopo-litical turmoil additionally sows uncertainty, with infrastructure destruction and emissions due to war and conflict adding to the policy challenge. Still, climate governance, despite these geopolitical pressures and influences, endures. The Paris Agreement is designed for the long-term with continuous five-year cycles of pledge-and-review, international cooperative initiatives such as the Global Methane Pledge or the Climate and Clean Air Coalition remain active, and unilateral climate action such as the EU’s CBAM and EUDR is still rolled out. This panel invites papers to reflect on this continuation, the analysis of climate governance as a whole, as well as the broader challenges related to climate governance.

Title	Details
What Comes After the Stocktake? Exploring Modes of GST–Follow-Up in Global Climate Governance	View Paper Details
Corporate Environmental Pacts: Towards a New Organising Concept for Corporate-Led Voluntary Sustainability Initiatives	View Paper Details
The Political Geography of Contestation: Mapping the International Objections to the EU’s CBAM and EUDR	View Paper Details
The Hologram Regime: Is the UNFCCC’s Global Stocktake an Ambition Facilitator or a Status Game?	View Paper Details
Fragmented Structures, Fragmented Evidence: Policy Integration and Evidence-Based Climate Governance in Multilevel Settings	View Paper Details