3. Why this course?
• What do you expect to learn?
• Go to www.menti.com and use the code xxxxxx
4. Contents
1. 04/12 Intro and climate change
2. 11/12 Biodiversity
3. 08/01 Oceans/fisheries/global commons
4. 15/01 Land use: forestry and desertification
5. 22/01 Economic models and paradigms
6. 29/01 Trade, investment and environment
7. 05/02 Governance for the SDGs
8. 12/02 Ways forward
9. 19/02 Exam
5. Each class
1. Flashback to previous class(es) – 10 mins
2. Video to illustrate topic – 10 mins
3. Lecture – 45 mins. max
4. Class discussion – 20 mins
5. Break – 15 mins
6. Students’ presentation + discussion – 30 mins
7. Practitioner’s reflections + your questions – 40 mins
8. Harvest learnings – 10 mins
6. Contents
today
Questions in GEP
History of GEP
Sites and modes of environmental governance
Approaches in IR
Regime and framing
Trends in GEP
Climate governance
7. Questions in GEP
• What is Global Environmental Politics?
• Is GEP strong enough?
Political science questions:
- What are the political causes of global
environmental change?
- Why is there a rise in global environmental
concerns?
- What constitutes GEP, and what explains the
shape and effectiveness of governance
institutions and arrangements?
8. History of GEP
• 1972 Stockholm Conference on Humans and the Environment
• 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Report –
‘Our Common Future’)
• 1992 Rio UN Conference on Environment and Development
• 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development
• 2012 Rio +20
• 2015 UN Sustainable Development Summit: SDGs
• 2015 Paris Climate Agreement (COP 21)
9. Sites and modes of environmental
governance
1. Broadening sites of governance: state led, international economic governance,
non-state governance (NGOs, corporations)
2. Modes of environmental governance: international cooperation (negotiation of
commitments), information-based governance (certification, transparency
mechanism), market mechanisms
3. Deepening sites: across scales
- national <-> global
- global <-> local (e.g. cities, transnational networks)
11. Approaches in
IR theory
• (Neo)realism: power, anarchy, conflict (not
cooperation), rivalry, states, zero-sum game
12. Approaches in
IR theory
• (Neo)realism: power, anarchy, conflict (not
cooperation), rivalry, states, zero-sum game
• (Neoliberal) institutionalism:
13. Approaches in
IR theory
• (Neo)realism: power, anarchy, conflict (not
cooperation), rivalry, states, zero-sum game
• (Neoliberal) institutionalism: institutions,
interdependence, international law, institutions
for win-win, transparency, monitoring
14. Approaches in
IR theory
• (Neo)realism: power, anarchy, conflict (not
cooperation), rivalry, states, zero-sum game
• (Neoliberal) institutionalism: institutions,
interdependence, international law, institutions
for win-win, transparency, monitoring
• Constructivism:
15. Approaches in
IR theory
• (Neo)realism: power, anarchy, conflict (not
cooperation), rivalry, states, zero-sum game
• (Neoliberal) institutionalism: institutions,
interdependence, international law, institutions
for win-win, transparency, monitoring
• Constructivism: norms, ideas, knowledge,
norms, non-state actors as shapers of ideas and
norms
16. Regime
“rules, organizations, and basic norms and
principles involved in the global governance
of an individual issue area” (Krasner, 1983)
E.g. treaties, organizations, decision-making
processes
Effectiveness: inclusiveness and
transparency
Regime complexes (e.g. climate,
biodiversity, ozone, forests)
20. Trends in GEP
research
(Dauvergne
and Clapp,
2016)
Increasingly focused on specific and
formal mechanisms of GEG; more
elaborate and refined methodologies
that span scales and levels of analysis
Concentrated on market-based
governance mechanisms and the
influence of private actors
Lens of climate change
21. Climate governance
1992: UNFCCC
1997 Kyoto Protocol: top-down, Annex 1/CBDR-RC
2015: Paris Agreement, bottom-up (NDCs)
Review NDCs every 5 years
22.
23. Issues in
UNFCCC
Green Climate Fund
Technology transfer
Adaptation
Loss and damage
REDD+
Compliance
G-77, AOSIS, 48 LDCs
City networks: C40, covenant of mayors, ICLEI
26. Why we disagree about climate change
Climate change is not “a problem” waiting for “a solution”.
It is an environmental, cultural and political phenomenon that is reshaping the way
we think about ourselves, about our societies and about humanity’s place on Earth.
an idea to be debated, adapted and used, as much as a physical phenomenon that
can be observed, quantified and measured
climate change means so many different things to different people
27. “We need to reveal the creative psychological, spiritual
and ethical work that climate change can do and is doing
for us.
By understanding the ways climate change connects with
foundational human instincts of nostalgia, fear, pride and
justice we open up a way of resituating culture and the
human spirit at the centre of our understanding of
climate.”
9 classes, 1 exam
Assign presentations, come up w proposal in class, discuss, write first draft by Monday, present on Wednesday
GEG: efforts of the int community to manage and solve shared environmental problems
Why not policy or governance?
Environmental vs. Political science debate (new orgs, agts)/complex issues and solutions
Who has been at all of these conferences?
These are ‘problem-solving’ or éxplanatory’ theories as they take the shape of the world or the basic structures of world politics as a given, and explain outcomes or make policy prescriptions within that framework.
By contrast, critical or normative approaches challenge the notion that existing world orders are a given and ask how they came into existing and how they might change. Normative theories seek to show how the world ought to be.
Examples? Trade? Climate change?
Treaties and law
Treaties and law
Cc: on one hand, articles draw linkages with other environmental issues such as ozon layer, forests, biodiversity etc, but on other hand, risks crowding out other issues.
COP 25 now
By 2009, China became biggest emitter of CO2 and US and EU emissions were going down
Example of framing
Different meanings: Russia less heating, sealevel rise, temperature rise, drought,
Fin a common language. Like gardening
Used for commodification of the atmosphere, inspiration for global networks, threats to security (armies)
It is the unfolding story of an idea and how this idea is changing the way that we think, feel and act.
Example of framing
Different meanings: Russia less heating, sealevel rise, temperature rise, drought,
Fin a common language. Like gardening
Used for commodification of the atmosphere, inspiration for global networks, threats to security (armies)
It is the unfolding story of an idea and how this idea is changing the way that we think, feel and act.