Non- and sub-state climate action after Paris: From a facilitative regime to a contested governance landscape

Jens Marquardt; Cornelia Fast; Julia Grimm

doi:10.1002/wcc.791

Non- and sub-state climate action after Paris: From a facilitative regime to a contested governance landscape

Jens Marquardt^*, Cornelia Fast, Julia Grimm

^*Corresponding author for this work

Environmental Policy Analysis

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The Paris Agreement marks a significant milestone in international climate politics. With its adoption, Parties call for non- and sub-state actors to contribute to the global climate agenda and close the emissions gap left by states. Such a facilitative setting embraces non-state climate action through joint efforts, synergies, and different modes of collaboration. At the same time, non-state actors have always played a critical and confrontational role in international climate governance. Based on a systematic literature review, we identify and critically assess the role of non-state climate action in a facilitative post-Paris climate governance regime. We thereby highlight three constitutive themes, namely different state-non-state relations, competing level of ambition, and a variety of knowledge foundations. We substantiate these themes, derived from an inductive analysis of existing literature, with illustrative examples and propose three paradigmatic non-state actor roles in post-Paris climate governance on a continuum between compliance and critique. We thereby highlight four particular threats of a facilitative setting, namely substitution of state action, co-optation, tokenism, and depoliticization. Future research should not limit itself to an effective integration of NSSAs into a facilitative climate regime, but also engage with the merits of contestation. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance.

Original language	English
Article number	e791
Pages (from-to)	1-22
Number of pages	22
Journal	Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Climate Change
Volume	13
Issue number	5
Early online date	15 Jun 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.791
Publication status	Published - Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We are grateful to the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Svenska Forskningsrådet, Formas) for funding this research in the broader context of the “Action for Climate Transformation in Sweden” project (www.act-sweden.se). We would like to thank Karin Bäckstrand, Eva Lövbrand, Naghmeh Nasiritousi, Oscar Widerberg, and the scientific advisory board of ACTS for detailed comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this literature review. Besides, we thank Michele Betsill, Dorothea Schoppek and Timo Richter for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this review. We also thank the participants of the Symposium “Adressing Grand Challenges” at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, as well as partipants at the 2021 ESG Conference and the 14th NESS Conference for their valuable input on how to further improve the manuscript. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Funding Information:
We are grateful to the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Svenska Forskningsrådet, Formas) for funding this research in the broader context of the “Action for Climate Transformation in Sweden” project ( www.act-sweden.se ). We would like to thank Karin Bäckstrand, Eva Lövbrand, Naghmeh Nasiritousi, Oscar Widerberg, and the scientific advisory board of ACTS for detailed comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this literature review. Besides, we thank Michele Betsill, Dorothea Schoppek and Timo Richter for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this review. We also thank the participants of the Symposium “Adressing Grand Challenges” at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, as well as partipants at the 2021 ESG Conference and the 14th NESS Conference for their valuable input on how to further improve the manuscript. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Funding Information:
Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas, Grant/Award Number: 2017‐01889; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Grant/Award Number: 434892950 Funding information

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Funding

We are grateful to the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Svenska Forskningsrådet, Formas) for funding this research in the broader context of the “Action for Climate Transformation in Sweden” project (www.act-sweden.se). We would like to thank Karin Bäckstrand, Eva Lövbrand, Naghmeh Nasiritousi, Oscar Widerberg, and the scientific advisory board of ACTS for detailed comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this literature review. Besides, we thank Michele Betsill, Dorothea Schoppek and Timo Richter for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this review. We also thank the participants of the Symposium “Adressing Grand Challenges” at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, as well as partipants at the 2021 ESG Conference and the 14th NESS Conference for their valuable input on how to further improve the manuscript. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. We are grateful to the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Svenska Forskningsrådet, Formas) for funding this research in the broader context of the “Action for Climate Transformation in Sweden” project ( www.act-sweden.se ). We would like to thank Karin Bäckstrand, Eva Lövbrand, Naghmeh Nasiritousi, Oscar Widerberg, and the scientific advisory board of ACTS for detailed comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this literature review. Besides, we thank Michele Betsill, Dorothea Schoppek and Timo Richter for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this review. We also thank the participants of the Symposium “Adressing Grand Challenges” at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, as well as partipants at the 2021 ESG Conference and the 14th NESS Conference for their valuable input on how to further improve the manuscript. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas, Grant/Award Number: 2017‐01889; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Grant/Award Number: 434892950 Funding information

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action

Keywords

climate change governance
contestation
environmental politics
non-state actors
Paris Agreement
transformation

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10.1002/wcc.791

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Cite this

@article{e44f00476adb41abafe8cb331bca76d4,

title = "Non- and sub-state climate action after Paris: From a facilitative regime to a contested governance landscape",

abstract = "The Paris Agreement marks a significant milestone in international climate politics. With its adoption, Parties call for non- and sub-state actors to contribute to the global climate agenda and close the emissions gap left by states. Such a facilitative setting embraces non-state climate action through joint efforts, synergies, and different modes of collaboration. At the same time, non-state actors have always played a critical and confrontational role in international climate governance. Based on a systematic literature review, we identify and critically assess the role of non-state climate action in a facilitative post-Paris climate governance regime. We thereby highlight three constitutive themes, namely different state-non-state relations, competing level of ambition, and a variety of knowledge foundations. We substantiate these themes, derived from an inductive analysis of existing literature, with illustrative examples and propose three paradigmatic non-state actor roles in post-Paris climate governance on a continuum between compliance and critique. We thereby highlight four particular threats of a facilitative setting, namely substitution of state action, co-optation, tokenism, and depoliticization. Future research should not limit itself to an effective integration of NSSAs into a facilitative climate regime, but also engage with the merits of contestation. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance.",

keywords = "climate change governance, contestation, environmental politics, non-state actors, Paris Agreement, transformation",

author = "Jens Marquardt and Cornelia Fast and Julia Grimm",

note = "Funding Information: We are grateful to the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Svenska Forskningsr{\aa}det, Formas) for funding this research in the broader context of the “Action for Climate Transformation in Sweden” project (www.act-sweden.se). We would like to thank Karin B{\"a}ckstrand, Eva L{\"o}vbrand, Naghmeh Nasiritousi, Oscar Widerberg, and the scientific advisory board of ACTS for detailed comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this literature review. Besides, we thank Michele Betsill, Dorothea Schoppek and Timo Richter for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this review. We also thank the participants of the Symposium “Adressing Grand Challenges” at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, as well as partipants at the 2021 ESG Conference and the 14th NESS Conference for their valuable input on how to further improve the manuscript. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Funding Information: We are grateful to the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Svenska Forskningsr{\aa}det, Formas) for funding this research in the broader context of the “Action for Climate Transformation in Sweden” project ( www.act-sweden.se ). We would like to thank Karin B{\"a}ckstrand, Eva L{\"o}vbrand, Naghmeh Nasiritousi, Oscar Widerberg, and the scientific advisory board of ACTS for detailed comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this literature review. Besides, we thank Michele Betsill, Dorothea Schoppek and Timo Richter for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this review. We also thank the participants of the Symposium “Adressing Grand Challenges” at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, as well as partipants at the 2021 ESG Conference and the 14th NESS Conference for their valuable input on how to further improve the manuscript. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Funding Information: Svenska Forskningsr{\aa}det Formas, Grant/Award Number: 2017‐01889; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Grant/Award Number: 434892950 Funding information Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.",

year = "2022",

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N1 - Funding Information: We are grateful to the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Svenska Forskningsrådet, Formas) for funding this research in the broader context of the “Action for Climate Transformation in Sweden” project (www.act-sweden.se). We would like to thank Karin Bäckstrand, Eva Lövbrand, Naghmeh Nasiritousi, Oscar Widerberg, and the scientific advisory board of ACTS for detailed comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this literature review. Besides, we thank Michele Betsill, Dorothea Schoppek and Timo Richter for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this review. We also thank the participants of the Symposium “Adressing Grand Challenges” at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, as well as partipants at the 2021 ESG Conference and the 14th NESS Conference for their valuable input on how to further improve the manuscript. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Funding Information: We are grateful to the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Svenska Forskningsrådet, Formas) for funding this research in the broader context of the “Action for Climate Transformation in Sweden” project ( www.act-sweden.se ). We would like to thank Karin Bäckstrand, Eva Lövbrand, Naghmeh Nasiritousi, Oscar Widerberg, and the scientific advisory board of ACTS for detailed comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this literature review. Besides, we thank Michele Betsill, Dorothea Schoppek and Timo Richter for their valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this review. We also thank the participants of the Symposium “Adressing Grand Challenges” at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, as well as partipants at the 2021 ESG Conference and the 14th NESS Conference for their valuable input on how to further improve the manuscript. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Funding Information: Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas, Grant/Award Number: 2017‐01889; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Grant/Award Number: 434892950 Funding information Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

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N2 - The Paris Agreement marks a significant milestone in international climate politics. With its adoption, Parties call for non- and sub-state actors to contribute to the global climate agenda and close the emissions gap left by states. Such a facilitative setting embraces non-state climate action through joint efforts, synergies, and different modes of collaboration. At the same time, non-state actors have always played a critical and confrontational role in international climate governance. Based on a systematic literature review, we identify and critically assess the role of non-state climate action in a facilitative post-Paris climate governance regime. We thereby highlight three constitutive themes, namely different state-non-state relations, competing level of ambition, and a variety of knowledge foundations. We substantiate these themes, derived from an inductive analysis of existing literature, with illustrative examples and propose three paradigmatic non-state actor roles in post-Paris climate governance on a continuum between compliance and critique. We thereby highlight four particular threats of a facilitative setting, namely substitution of state action, co-optation, tokenism, and depoliticization. Future research should not limit itself to an effective integration of NSSAs into a facilitative climate regime, but also engage with the merits of contestation. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance.

AB - The Paris Agreement marks a significant milestone in international climate politics. With its adoption, Parties call for non- and sub-state actors to contribute to the global climate agenda and close the emissions gap left by states. Such a facilitative setting embraces non-state climate action through joint efforts, synergies, and different modes of collaboration. At the same time, non-state actors have always played a critical and confrontational role in international climate governance. Based on a systematic literature review, we identify and critically assess the role of non-state climate action in a facilitative post-Paris climate governance regime. We thereby highlight three constitutive themes, namely different state-non-state relations, competing level of ambition, and a variety of knowledge foundations. We substantiate these themes, derived from an inductive analysis of existing literature, with illustrative examples and propose three paradigmatic non-state actor roles in post-Paris climate governance on a continuum between compliance and critique. We thereby highlight four particular threats of a facilitative setting, namely substitution of state action, co-optation, tokenism, and depoliticization. Future research should not limit itself to an effective integration of NSSAs into a facilitative climate regime, but also engage with the merits of contestation. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance.

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KW - contestation

KW - environmental politics

KW - non-state actors

KW - Paris Agreement

KW - transformation

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IS - 5

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Non- and sub-state climate action after Paris: From a facilitative regime to a contested governance landscape

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

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Cite this