Exploring the Trade-Offs of Fragmentation in Global Climate Governance: A Way Forward for the EU

Newly emerging and proliferating transnational regulatory networks and public-private partnerships have made the architecture of global climate governance increasingly complex and fragmented. The EU has an explicit objective to uphold the rules-based international order and strengthen multilateralism while simultaneously advancing its ambitious global climate agenda. The key question is: how can this dual objective be achieved and reconciled in an increasingly fragmented, contested, and informal international political environment? We contribute to answering this pressing question by analyzing the trade-offs among different choices to invest both economic and political capital in advancing particular goals through global governance arrangements. Our empirical analysis assesses three key attributes of selected organizations: openness, formality, and focus of work (normative/technical). The sample of organizations represents all combinations of these attributes, and by analyzing their various constellations, we delineate multiple pathways for the EU to realize its policy objectives.