Global institutions
Climate change and global governance
Are new approaches to global governance needed to address climate change effectively?
Authors:
J. Drexhage
Publisher:
International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, 2008
While at its core climate change remains an environmental issue, the responses required to effectively address it lie far beyond traditional environmental challenges. As such, legitimate questions arise as to whether the appropriate policy/negotiating fora for addressing climate change should be left in the hands of Environment Ministers. This article argues that to address the multi-faceted climate challenge, governance efforts must evolve beyond the current global regime-building model and that environmental and development policies must become much better integrated.
Points made by the author include:
- with respect to developing countries, it is critical that attention be paid to domestic implementation mechanisms and priorities. In particular, institutionalisation of climate change issues in domestic government agencies would effectively create “champions” for mitigation and adaptation within governments of developing countries
- engagement is a crucial step, which would build a constituency for action and help give domestic and foreign businesses and NGOs reliable points of contact to engage governments on climate change. It also means much more effective co-ordination and enhanced coherence between aid agencies and international financial institutions (IFIs).
- for OECD countries, engagement means showing leadership at home. OECD countries must demonstrate that they are taking significant actions at home to mitigate climate change without compromising their economic objectives.
