TY - JOUR A1 - Bansard, Jennifer S. A1 - Pattberg, Philipp H. A1 - Widerberg, Oscar T1 - Cities to the rescue? Assessing the performance of transnational municipal networks in global climate governance JF - International environmental agreements: politics, law and economics N2 - Despite the proliferation and promise of subnational climate initiatives, the institutional architecture of transnational municipal networks (TMNs) is not well understood. With a view to close this research gap, the article empirically assesses the assumption that TMNs are a viable substitute for ambitious international action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It addresses the aggregate phenomenon in terms of geographical distribution, central players, mitigation ambition and monitoring provisions. Examining thirteen networks, it finds that membership in TMNs is skewed toward Europe and North America while countries from the Global South are underrepresented; that only a minority of networks commit to quantified emission reductions and that these are not more ambitious than Parties to the UNFCCC; and finally that the monitoring provisions are fairly limited. In sum, the article shows that transnational municipal networks are not (yet) the representative, ambitious and transparent player they are thought to be. KW - Climate change KW - Cities and regions KW - Urban politics KW - Transnational networks Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-016-9318-9 SN - 1567-9764 SN - 1573-1553 VL - 17 SP - 229 EP - 246 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hickmann, Thomas A1 - Widerberg, Oscar A1 - Lederer, Markus A1 - Pattberg, Philipp H. T1 - The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat as an orchestrator in global climate policymaking JF - International review of administrative sciences : an international journal of comparative public administration N2 - Scholars have recently devoted increasing attention to the role and function of international bureaucracies in global policymaking. Some of them contend that international public officials have gained significant political influence in various policy fields. Compared to other international bureaucracies, the political leeway of the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has been considered rather limited. Due to the specific problem structure of the policy domain of climate change, national governments endowed this intergovernmental treaty secretariat with a relatively narrow mandate. However, this article argues that in the past few years, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat has gradually loosened its straitjacket and expanded its original spectrum of activity by engaging different sub-national and non-state actors into a policy dialogue using facilitative orchestration as a mode of governance. The present article explores the recent evolution of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat and investigates the way in which it initiates, guides, broadens and strengthens sub-national and non-state climate actions to achieve progress in the international climate negotiations.
Points for practitioners
The Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has lately adopted new roles and functions in global climate policymaking. While previously seen as a rather technocratic body that, first and foremost, serves national governments, the Climate Secretariat increasingly interacts with sub-national governments, civil society organizations and private companies to push the global response to climate change forward. We contend that the Climate Secretariat can contribute to global climate policymaking by coordinating and steering the initiatives of non-nation-state actors towards coherence and good practice. KW - climate change KW - environmental policymaking KW - intergovernmental relations KW - international bureaucracies KW - sub-national and non-state actors Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852319840425 SN - 0020-8523 SN - 1461-7226 VL - 87 IS - 1 SP - 21 EP - 38 PB - Sage CY - Los Angeles, Calif. [u.a.] ER -