Exploring national and regional orchestration of non-state action for a &lt; 1.5 °C world

Chan, Sander; Ellinger, Paula; Widerberg, Oscar

doi:10.1007/s10784-018-9384-2

Cited by 42 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…2 PA "well below" 2 degrees) and secondly the 1.5-degree target. This shows that current efforts are not enough [13,21,23,26,29,75,79].…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarks: The Paris Objective And Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Referring to the EU, or Germany, as a good example in terms of climate policies has not even had merit in the past, despite some singular successes [11,56,72,76,78,79]. That the negotiating parties have not reached a better result in Paris bears witness that: In Paris, the EU has pledged minus 40 percent greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 as the (supra-)national climate contribution according to Art.…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarks: The Paris Objective And Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paris Agreement, Precautionary Principle and Human Rights: Zero Emissions in Two Decades?

2018

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The Paris Agreement of December 2015 is subject to much criticism of being inadequate. This however neglects its very ambitious objective, which limits legally-binding global warming to 1.5 to 1.8 degrees in comparison to pre-industrial levels. This article shows, based on the overlap of unanswered questions for prognoses in natural science and the legal precautionary principle, that this objective indicates a legal imperative towards zero emissions globally within a short timeframe. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that policies need to be focused on achieving the 1.5-degree temperature limit. From a legal standpoint with regard to existential matters, only those policies are justified that are fit to contribute to reaching the temperature limit with high certainty, without overshoot, without leaving the 1.5 limit aside and without geoengineering measures, in contrast to the tendencies of the IPCC. This creates a big challenge even for the alleged forerunners of climate policies, Germany and the EU; because, according to the objective, the EU and Germany have to raise the level of ambition in their climate policies rapidly and drastically.

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“…2 PA "well below" 2 degrees) and secondly the 1.5-degree target. This shows that current efforts are not enough [13,21,23,26,29,75,79].…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarks: The Paris Objective And Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarks: The Paris Objective And Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paris Agreement, Precautionary Principle and Human Rights: Zero Emissions in Two Decades?

2018

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“…The main assumptions are that all commitments are fully implemented and that the pace of action elsewhere is not impacted. At this moment, we believe the latter is a valid assumption, as there is limited coordination on policy implementation between national governments and other actors (Chan et al, 2018a). Therefore, we did not quantify the coordination effects between national governments and other actors, nor the interaction between policy instruments at different scales.…”

Section: Scenarios Investigatedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our analysis only included actors from 10 high-emitting countries, while in reality sub-national and non-state climate actions take place globally. Studies have shown that the full extent of climate action often goes unreported, particularly among actors from the Global South (Chan et al, 2018a;Chan & Hale, 2015;Hsu et al, 2016;UNFCCC, 2018;Widerberg & Stripple, 2016) and varies across economic, geographic, and national contexts. For businesses, not all companies are willing to make their climate action commitments public.…”

Section: Incomplete Coverage Of Existing Sub-national and Non-state Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond national climate action: the impact of region, city, and business commitments on global greenhouse gas emissions

et al. 2020

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This article quantifies the net aggregate impact in 2030 of commitments by individual non-state and subnational actors (e.g. regions, cities and businesses, collectively referred to as 'NSAs') to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The analysis was conducted for NSAs operating within ten major emitting economies that together accounted for roughly two-thirds of global GHG emissions in 2016. Our assessment includes 79 regions (e.g. subnational states and provinces), approximately 6,000 cities, and nearly 1,600 companies with a net emissions coverage of 8.1 GtCO 2 e/year, or a quarter of the ten economies' total GHG emissions in 2016. The analysis reflects a proposed methodology to aggregate commitments from different subnational (i.e. regional and city government) and non-state (i.e. business) actors, accounting for overlaps. If individual commitments by NSAs in the ten high-emitting economies studied are fully implemented and do not change the pace of action elsewhere, projected GHG emissions in 2030 for the ten economies would be 1.2-2.0 GtCO 2 e/year or 3.8%-5.5% lower compared to scenario projections for current national policies (31.6-36.8 GtCO 2 e/year). On a country level, we find that the full implementation of these individual commitments alone could result in the European Union and Japan overachieving their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), while India could further overachieve its unconditional NDC target. In the United States, where the national government has rolled back climate policies, NSAs could become a potential driving force for climate action. Key policy insights. Full implementation of reported and quantifiable individual commitments by regions, cities and businesses (NSAs) in ten major economies could reduce emissions by 3.8%-5.5% in 2030 below current national policies scenario projections.. National governments' mitigation targets could be more ambitious if they would take NSA commitments into account. With full implementation of such action, the European Union and Japan would overachieve their NDC targets. For the United States such action could help meeting its original 2025 NDC target in spite of rollbacks in national climate policies.. The full universe of NSA climate action expands far beyond the subset of commitments analysed in this study; NSAs could become a strong driving force for enhanced action towards the Paris climate goals.

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“…)., ; Bulkeley et al, ). This raises the question whether most of their benefits would accrue in the global North rather than where resilience against climate impacts and sustainability needs are most urgent (Chan, Ellinger, & Widerberg, ). Moreover, nonstate actions that aim to intervene in developing countries could effectively address one objective while still leading to negative secondary impacts.…”

Section: The Promise Of Nonstate Actionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promises and risks of nonstate action in climate and sustainability governance

Chan

Boran

Asselt

et al. 2019

WIREs Climate Change

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Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement stand as milestone diplomatic achievements. However, immense discrepancies between political commitments and governmental action remain. Combined national climate commitments fall far short of the Paris Agreement's 1.5/2°C targets. Similar political ambition gaps persist across various areas of sustainable development. Many therefore argue that actions by nonstate actors, such as businesses and investors, cities and regions, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), are crucial. These voices have resonated across the United Nations (UN) system, leading to growing recognition, promotion, and mobilization of such actions in ever greater numbers. This article investigates optimistic arguments about nonstate engagement, namely: (a) “the more the better”; (b) “everybody wins”; (c) “everyone does their part”; and (d) “more brings more.” However, these optimistic arguments may not be matched in practice due to governance risks. The current emphasis on quantifiable impacts may lead to the under‐appreciation of variegated social, economic, and environmental impacts. Claims that everybody stands to benefit may easily be contradicted by outcomes that are not in line with priorities and needs in developing countries. Despite the seeming depoliticization of the role of nonstate actors in implementation, actions may still lead to politically contentious outcomes. Finally, nonstate climate and sustainability actions may not be self‐reinforcing but may heavily depend on supporting mechanisms. The article concludes with governance risk‐reduction strategies that can be combined to maximize nonstate potential in sustainable and climate‐resilient transformations. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance

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Exploring national and regional orchestration of non-state action for a < 1.5 °C world

Cited by 42 publications

References 18 publications

Paris Agreement, Precautionary Principle and Human Rights: Zero Emissions in Two Decades?

Paris Agreement, Precautionary Principle and Human Rights: Zero Emissions in Two Decades?

Beyond national climate action: the impact of region, city, and business commitments on global greenhouse gas emissions

Promises and risks of nonstate action in climate and sustainability governance

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