The Democratic Legitimacy of Global Climate Governance: The UNFCCC and the Orchestration of Transnational Action

The Paris Agreement secures for the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) the role of orchestrator of global efforts to mitigate carbon emissions. What does the practice of orchestration mean for the democratic legitimacy of global climate governance? Given ensuing debates on the legitimacy of international politics, this is an increasingly important question. Taking consideration of both multilateral diplomacy and the polycentric, hybrid and scalar character of climate governance, we explore whether three different models of democratic legitimacy can underpin the practice of orchestration: intergovernmental, stakeholder, and a deliberative systems approach. We contend that each model suffers from theoretical and empirical limitations. We then turn toward an emergent strategy of democratic values, which suggests that the appropriate standard of democratic legitimacy relates to the institutional form being regulated. We flesh out this approach and apply the argument to the shifting role of the UNFCCC. In making this argument, we combine normative theorizing with in-depth qualitative and quantitative data including analysis of UNFCCC documents, position papers, websites of different non-state actors, and more than 50 semi-structured interviews from all constituencies at COPs. Exploring the current practices and potentialities of state and non-state actors for democratizing climate governance is essential for the legitimacy and effectiveness of the post-Paris climate regime.