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Effective and geographically balanced? An output-based assessment of non-state climate actions

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  • Sander Chan
  • Robert Falkner
  • Matthew Goldberg
  • Harro van Asselt

Abstract

At COP21 in Paris, governments reiterated the importance of ‘non-Party’ contributions, placing big bets that the efforts of cities, regions, investors, companies, and other social groups will help keep average global warming limited to well under 2°C. However, there is little systematic knowledge concerning the performance of non-state and subnational efforts. We established a database of 52 climate actions launched at the 2014 UN Climate Summit in New York to assess output performance – that is, the production of relevant outputs – to understand whether they are likely to deliver social and environmental impacts. Moreover, we assess to which extent climate actions are implemented across developed and developing countries. We find that climate actions are starting to deliver, and output performance after one year is higher than one might expect from previous experiences with similar actions. However, differences exist between action areas: resilience actions have yet to produce specific outputs, whereas energy and industry actions perform above average. Furthermore, imbalances between developing and developed countries persist. While many actions target low-income and lower-middle-income economies, the implementation gap in these countries remains greater. More efforts are necessary to mobilize and implement actions that benefit the world’s most vulnerable people.Policy relevanceClimate actions by non-state and subnational actors are an important complement to the multilateral climate regime and the associated contributions made by national governments. Although such actions hold much potential, we still know very little about how they could deliver in practice. This article addresses this knowledge gap, by showing how 52 climate actions announced at the UN Climate Summit in 2014 have performed thus far. Based on our analysis, we argue that the post-Paris action agenda for non-state and subnational climate action should (1) find more effective ways to incentivize private sector actors to engage in transnational climate governance through actions that seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote climate resilience in a tangible manner; (2) identify factors underlying effectiveness, to take appropriate measures to support underperforming climate actions; and (3) address the large implementation gap of climate actions in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Sander Chan & Robert Falkner & Matthew Goldberg & Harro van Asselt, 2018. "Effective and geographically balanced? An output-based assessment of non-state climate actions," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 24-35, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:18:y:2018:i:1:p:24-35
    DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2016.1248343
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Adis Dzebo, 2019. "Effective governance of transnational adaptation initiatives," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 447-466, October.
    2. David Horan, 2021. "The SDGs as an Integrative Framework to Assess Coherence of Transnational Multistakeholder Partnerships for SIDS," Working Papers 202110, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    3. Ivan Ruiz Manuel & Kornelis Blok, 2023. "Quantitative evaluation of large corporate climate action initiatives shows mixed progress in their first half-decade," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Daniel Puig & Fatemeh Bakhtiari, 2021. "Determinants of successful delivery by non-state actors: an exploratory study," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 93-111, March.
    5. Sander Chan & Wanja Amling, 2019. "Does orchestration in the Global Climate Action Agenda effectively prioritize and mobilize transnational climate adaptation action?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 429-446, October.
    6. Joshua Long, 2021. "Crisis Capitalism and Climate Finance: The Framing, Monetizing, and Orchestration of Resilience-Amidst-Crisis," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 51-63.
    7. Sander Chan & Paula Ellinger & Oscar Widerberg, 2018. "Exploring national and regional orchestration of non-state action for a," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 135-152, February.
    8. Rendani Mulaudzi & Joseph Kioko, 2020. "Content Analysis of South African Sunday Newspaper Coverage of the Durban and Copenhagen Climate Change Conferences," Studies in Media and Communication, Redfame publishing, vol. 8(2), pages 34-40, December.
    9. Philipp Pattberg & Cille Kaiser & Oscar Widerberg & Johannes Stripple, 2022. "20 Years of global climate change governance research: taking stock and moving forward," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 295-315, June.
    10. Oliver Westerwinter, 2021. "Transnational public-private governance initiatives in world politics: Introducing a new dataset," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 137-174, January.
    11. Sander Chan & Thomas Hale & Andrew Deneault & Manish Shrivastava & Kennedy Mbeva & Victoria Chengo & Joanes Atela, 2022. "Assessing the effectiveness of orchestrated climate action from five years of summits," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 12(7), pages 628-633, July.
    12. Daniel Puig & Fatemeh Bakhtiari, 0. "Determinants of successful delivery by non-state actors: an exploratory study," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-19.

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