TY - JOUR
A1 - Chan, Sander
A1 - Boran, Idil
A1 - van Asselt, Harro
A1 - Iacobuta, Gabriela
A1 - Niles, Navam
A1 - Rietig, Katharine
A1 - Scobie, Michelle
A1 - Bansard, Jennifer S.
A1 - Delgado Pugley, Deborah
A1 - Delina, Laurence L.
A1 - Eichhorn, Friederike
A1 - Ellinger, Paula
A1 - Enechi, Okechukwu
A1 - Hale, Thomas
A1 - Hermwille, Lukas
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Honegger, Matthias
A1 - Hurtado Epstein, Andrea
A1 - Theuer, Stephanie La Hoz
A1 - Mizo, Robert
A1 - Sun, Yixian
A1 - Toussaint, Patrick
A1 - Wambugu, Geoffrey
T1 - Promises and risks of nonstate action in climate and sustainability governance
JF - Wiley interdisciplinary reviews : Climate change
KW - climate change
KW - governance
KW - nonstate actions
KW - SDGs
KW - sustainable development
Y1 - 2019
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.572
SN - 1757-7780
SN - 1757-7799
VL - 10
IS - 3
PB - Wiley
CY - Hoboken
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Fuhr, Harald
A1 - Höhne, Chris
A1 - Lederer, Markus
A1 - Stehle, Fee
T1 - Carbon Governance Arrangements and the Nation-State: The Reconfiguration of Public Authority in Developing Countries
JF - Public administration and development
N2 - Several scholars concerned with global policy-making have recently pointed to a reconfiguration of authority in the area of climate politics. They have shown that various new carbon governance arrangements have emerged, which operate simultaneously at different governmental levels. However, despite the numerous descriptions and mapping exercises of these governance arrangements, we have little systematic knowledge on their workings within national jurisdictions, let alone about their impact on public-administrative systems in developing countries. Therefore, this article opens the black box of the nation-state and explores how and to what extent two different arrangements, that is, Transnational City Networks and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, generate changes in the distribution of public authority in nation-states and their administrations. Building upon conceptual assumptions that the former is likely to lead to more decentralized, and the latter to more centralized policy-making, we provide insights from case studies in Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil, and India. In a nutshell, our analysis underscores that Transnational City Networks strengthen climate-related actions taken by cities without ultimately decentralizing climate policy-making. On the other hand, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation tends to reinforce the competencies of central governments, but apparently does not generate a recentralization of the forestry sector at large.
KW - authority
KW - climate politics
KW - decentralization
KW - developing countries
KW - global south
KW - public administration
KW - REDD
KW - transnational city networks
Y1 - 2017
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1814
SN - 0271-2075
SN - 1099-162X
VL - 37
SP - 331
EP - 343
PB - Wiley
CY - Hoboken
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
T1 - Voluntary global business initiatives and the international climate negotiations
BT - a case study of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
N2 - The past few years have witnessed the emergence of a plethora of transnational climate governance experiments. They have been developed by a broad range of actors, such as cities, non-profit organizations, and private corporations. Several scholars have lately devoted particular attention to voluntary global business initiatives in the policy domain of climate change. Their studies have provided considerable insights into the role and function of such new modes of climate governance. However, the precise nature of the relationship between the various climate governance experiments and the international climate negotiations has not been analyzed in enough detail. Against this backdrop, the present article explores the interplay of a business sector climate governance experiment, i.e. the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) with the international climate regime. On the one hand, the article underscores that the GHG Protocol has filled a regulatory gap in global climate policy-making by providing the means for the corporate sector to comprehensively account and report their GHGs. On the other hand, it reveals that the application of the GHG Protocol guidelines depends to a large extent on the existence of an overarching policy framework set up by nation-states at the intergovernmental level. Only if private companies receive a clear political signal that stringent mandatory GHG emission controls and a global market-based instrument are at least likely to be adopted will they put substantial efforts into the accurate measurement and management of their GHGs. Thus, this article points to the limits of climate governance experimentation and suggests that business sector climate governance experiments need to be embedded in a coherent international regulatory setting which generates a clear stimulus for corporate action.
KW - Climate governance experiments
KW - GHG Protocol
KW - International climate negotiations
KW - UNFCCC
KW - Voluntary global business initiatives
Y1 - 2017
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.183
SN - 0959-6526
SN - 1879-1786
VL - 169
SP - 94
EP - 104
PB - Elsevier
CY - Oxford
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
T1 - The reconfiguration of authority in global climate governance
JF - International Studies Review
N2 - Much of the literature in the field of international relations is currently concerned with the changing patterns of authority in world politics. This is particularly evident in the policy domain of climate change, where a number of authors have observed a relocation of authority in global climate governance. These scholars claim that multilateral treaty making has lost much of its spark, and they emphasize the emergence of transnational governance arrangements, such as city networks, private certification schemes, and business self-regulation. However, the different types of interactions between the various transnational climate initiatives and the intergovernmental level have not been studied in much detail and only recently attracted growing scholarly interest. Therefore, the present article addresses this issue and focuses on the interplay between three different transnational climate governance arrangements and the international climate regime. The analysis in this article underscores that substate and nonstate actors have attained several authoritative functions in global climate policy making. Nevertheless, the three case studies also demonstrate that this development does not imply that we are witnessing a general shift of authority away from the intergovernmental level toward transnational actors. Instead, what can be observed in global climate governance is an ongoing reconfiguration of authority, which apparently reaffirms the centrality of the international climate regime. Thus, this article points to the need for a more nuanced perspective on the changing patterns of authority in global climate governance. In a nutshell, this study shows that the international climate regime is not the only location where the problem of climate change is addressed, while it highlights the persistent authority of state-based forms of regulation.
KW - authority
KW - global climate governance
KW - transnational governance arrangements
Y1 - 2017
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/vix037
SN - 1521-9488
SN - 1468-2486
VL - 19
SP - 430
EP - 451
PB - Oxford Univ. Press
CY - Oxford
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Fuhr, Harald
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Kern, Kristine
T1 - The role of cities in multi-level climate governance
BT - local climate policies and the 1.5 degrees C target
JF - Current opinion in environmental sustainability
N2 - The past two decades have witnessed widespread scholarly interest in the role of cities in climate policy-making. This research has considerably improved our understanding of the local level in the global response to climate change. The present article synthesizes the literature on local climate policies with respect to the 1.5 degrees C target. While most studies have focused on pioneering cities and networks, we contend that the broader impacts of local climate actions and their relationship to regional, national, and international policy frameworks have not been studied in enough detail. Against this backdrop, we introduce the concept of upscaling and contend that local climate initiatives must go hand in hand with higher-level policies and be better integrated into the multi-level governance system.
Y1 - 2017
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.10.006
SN - 1877-3435
SN - 1877-3443
VL - 30
SP - 1
EP - 6
PB - Elsevier
CY - Oxford
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
T1 - Rezension zu: Andonova, Liliana B: Governance Entrepreneurs: International Organizations and the Rise of Global Public-Private Partnerships. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. - XI,275 S. - ISBN 978-1-107-16566-3
JF - Global environmental politics
Y1 - 2019
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_r_00510
SN - 1526-3800
SN - 1536-0091
VL - 19
IS - 2
SP - 175
EP - 177
PB - MIT Press
CY - Cambridge
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Elsässer, Joshua Philipp
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Stehle, Fee
T1 - The Role of Cities in South Africa’s Energy Gridlock
JF - Case Studies in the Environment
N2 - South Africa’s energy sector finds itself in a gridlock situation. The sector is controlled by the state-owned utility Eskom holding the monopoly on the generation and transmission of electricity, which is almost exclusively produced from domestically extracted coal. At the same time, the constitutional mandate enables municipalities to distribute and sell electricity generated by Eskom to local consumers, which constitutes a large part of the cities’ municipal income. This is a strong disincentive for city governments to promote reductions in energy consumption and substantially limits the scope for urban action on energy efficiency and renewable energies. In the present case study, we portray the current development in South Africa’s energy policy and trace how deadlocked legal, financial, and institutional barriers block the transition from a coal-based energy system toward a greener and more sustainable energy economy. We furthermore point to the efforts of major South African cities to introduce low-carbon strategies in their jurisdictions and highlight key challenges for the future development of the country’s energy sector. By engaging with this case study, readers will become familiar with a prime example of the wider phenomenon of national political–economic obstacles to the progress in sustainable urban development.
Y1 - 2018
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1525/cse.2018.001297
SN - 2473-9510
VL - 2
IS - 1
SP - 1
EP - 7
PB - University of California Press
CY - Oakland
ER -
TY - GEN
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Partzsch, Lena
A1 - Pattberg, Philipp H.
A1 - Weiland, Sabine
T1 - Introduction
BT - A political science perspective on the Anthropocene
T2 - The Anthropocene Debate and Political Science
N2 - Over the past decades, it has become more and more obvious that ongoing globalisation processes have substantial impacts on the natural environment. Studies reveal that intensified global economic relations have caused or accelerated dramatic changes in the Earth system, defined as the sum of our planet’s interacting physical, chemical, biological and human processes (Schellnhuber et al. 2004). Climate change, biodiversity loss, disrupted biogeochemical cycles, and land degradation are often cited as emblematic problems of global environmental change (Rockström et al. 2009; Steffen et al. 2015). In this context, the term Anthropocene has lately received widespread attention and gained some prominence in the academic literature
Y1 - 2019
SN - 978-1-351-17412-1
SN - 978-0-8153-8614-8
U6 - https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351174121
IS - 1
SP - 1
EP - 12
PB - Routledge
CY - London
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Bansard, Jennifer S.
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Kern, Kristine
T1 - Pathways to urban sustainability
BT - How science can contribute to sustainable development in cities
JF - GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society
N2 - Recent years have seen a considerable broadening of the ambitions in urban sustainability policy-making. With its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, the 2030 Agenda stresses the critical role of cities in achieving sustainable development. In the context of SDG17 on partnerships, emphasis is also placed on the role of researchers and other scientific actors as change agents in the sustainability transformation. Against this backdrop, this article sheds light on different pathways through which science can contribute to urban sustainability. In particular, we discern four forms of science-policy-society interactions as key vectors: 1. sharing knowledge and providing scientific input to urban sustainability policy-making; 2. implementing transformative research projects; 3. contributing to local capacity building; and 4. self-governing towards sustainability. The pathways of influence are illustrated with empirical examples, and their interlinkages and limitations are discussed. We contend that there are numerous opportunities for actors from the field of sustainability science to engage with political and societal actors to enhance sustainable development at the local level.
KW - cities
KW - science-policy interactions
KW - SDG 11
KW - sustainable development
KW - urban sustainability
Y1 - 2019
U6 - https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.28.2.9
SN - 0940-5550
VL - 28
IS - 2
SP - 112
EP - 118
PB - Oekom Verlag
CY - München
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Höhne, Chris
A1 - Fuhr, Harald
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Lederer, Markus
A1 - Stehle, Fee
ED - Nuesiri, Emmanuel O.
T1 - REDD plus and the reconfiguration of public authority in the forest sector
BT - a comparative case study of Indonesia and Brazil
JF - Global Forest Governance and Climate Change
N2 - Since the 1980s, central governments have decentralized forestry to local governments in many countries of the Global South. More recently, REDD+ has started to impact forest policy-making in these countries by providing incentives to ensure a national-level approach to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Höhne et al. analyze to what extent central governments have rebuilt capacity at the national level, imposed regulations from above, and interfered in forest management by local governments for advancing REDD+. Using the examples of Brazil and Indonesia, the chapter illustrates that while REDD+ has not initiated a large-scale recentralization in the forestry sector, it has supported the reinforcement and pooling of REDD+ related competences at the central government level.
Y1 - 2018
SN - 978-3-319-71946-7
SN - 978-3-319-71945-0
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71946-7_8
SP - 203
EP - 241
PB - Palgrave
CY - Basingstoke
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Stehle, Fee
T1 - The Embeddedness of Urban Climate Politics in Multilevel Governance
BT - a Case Study of South Africa’s Major Cities
JF - The journal of environment & development : a review of international policy
N2 - Numerous scholars have lately highlighted the importance of cities in the global response to climate change. However, we still have little systematic knowledge on the evolution of urban climate politics in the Global South. In particular, we lack empirical studies that examine how local climate actions arise in political-administrative systems of developing and emerging economies. Therefore, this article adopts a multilevel governance perspective to explore the climate mitigation responses of three major cities in South Africa by looking at their vertical and horizontal integration in the wider governance framework. In the absence of a coherent national climate policy, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban have developed distinct climate actions within their jurisdictions. In their effort to address climate change, transnational city networks have provided considerable technical support to these cities. Yet, substantial domestic political-economic obstacles hinder the three cities to develop a more ambitious stance on climate change.
KW - climate change
KW - developing and emerging economies
KW - local climate policy making
KW - multilevel governance
KW - South Africa
KW - transnational city networks
Y1 - 2018
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1070496518819121
SN - 1070-4965
SN - 1552-5465
VL - 28
IS - 1
SP - 54
EP - 77
PB - Sage Publ.
CY - Thousand Oaks
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Elsässer, Joshua Philipp
T1 - New alliances in global environmental governance
BT - how intergovernmental treaty secretariats interact with non-state actors to address transboundary environmental problems
JF - International environmental agreements: politics, law and economics
N2 - The past few years have witnessed a growing interest among scholars and policy-makers in the interplay of international bureaucracies with civil society organizations, non-profit entities, and the private sector. Authors concerned with global environmental politics have made considerable progress in capturing this phenomenon. Nevertheless, we still lack in-depth empirical knowledge on the precise nature of such institutional interlinkages across governance levels and scales. Building upon the concept oforchestration, this article focuses on the relationship between specific types of international bureaucracies and actors other than the nation-state. In particular, we investigate how the secretariats of the three Rio Conventions reach out to non-state actors in order to exert influence on the outcome of international environmental negotiations. Our analysis demonstrates that the three intergovernmental treaty secretariats utilize various styles of orchestration in their relation to non-state actors and seek to push the global responses to the respective transboundary environmental problems forward. This article points to a recent trend towards a direct collaboration between these secretariats and non-state actors which gives rise to the idea that new alliances between these actors are emerging in global environmental governance.
KW - global environmental governance
KW - institutional interplay
KW - intergovernmental treaty secretariats
KW - orchestration
KW - Rio Conventions
KW - non-state actors
Y1 - 2020
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-020-09493-5
SN - 1567-9764
SN - 1573-1553
VL - 20
IS - 3
SP - 459
EP - 481
PB - Springer
CY - Dordrecht [u.a.]
ER -
TY - CHAP
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Partzsch, Lena
A1 - Pattberg, Philipp H.
A1 - Weiland, Sabine
T1 - Conclusion
BT - Towards a 'deep debate' on the Anthropocene
T2 - The anthropocene debate and political science
Y1 - 2019
SN - 978-0-8153-8614-8
SP - 237
EP - 251
PB - Routledge
CY - London
ER -
TY - CHAP
A1 - Lederer, Markus
A1 - Höhne, Chris
A1 - Stehle, Fee
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Fuhr, Harald
ED - Wurzel, Rüdiger K. W.
ED - Andersen, Mikael Skou
ED - Tobin, Paul
T1 - Multilevel climate governance in Brazil and Indonesia
BT - domestic pioneership and leadership in the Global South
T2 - Climate governance across the globe : Pioneers, leaders and followers
N2 - Focusing on forest policy and urban climate politics in Brazil and Indonesia, the primary objective of this chapter is to identify domestic pioneers and leaders who, compared to other sectors, governmental levels or jurisdictions within the same nation-state, move ‘ahead of the troops’ (Liefferink and Wurzel, 2017: 2-3). The chapter focuses especially on the role of multilevel governance in bringing about pioneership and leadership and on the different types of that have emerged. It also explores whether and, if so, to what extent domestic pioneers and leaders attract followers and whether there are signs of sustained domestic leadership. The chapter identifies the actors that constitute pioneers and leaders and assesses the processes which lead to their emergence. The chapter authors take up Wurzel et al.’s (2019) call to open up the black box of the nation-state. But instead of stressing the role of non-state actors, the chapter authors focus on vertical interactions among different governmental levels within nation states. The main argument put forward is that international and transnational processes, incentives, and ideas often trigger the development of domestic pioneership and leadership. Such processes, however, cannot be understood properly if domestic politics and dynamics across governmental levels within the nation-state are not taken into account.
Y1 - 2020
SN - 978-1-003-01424-9
SN - 978-0-367-65047-6
SN - 978-0-367-43436-6
U6 - https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003014249
SP - 101
EP - 119
PB - Routledge
CY - Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY
ER -
TY - CHAP
A1 - Höhne, Chris
A1 - Fuhr, Harald
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Lederer, Markus
A1 - Stehle, Fee
ED - Nuesiri, Emmanuel O.
T1 - REDD+ and the reconfiguration of public authority in the forest sector
BT - a comparative case study of Indonesia and Brazil
T2 - Global Forest Governance and Climate Change
Y1 - 2018
SN - 978-3-319-71945-0
SP - 203
EP - 241
PB - Springer
CY - Cham
ER -
TY - CHAP
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Lederer, Markus
T1 - Global political economy and development
T2 - Global Environmental Politics
Y1 - 2018
SN - 978-1-351-71664-2
SP - 47
EP - 56
PB - Routledge
CY - London
ET - 1
ER -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
T1 - Private authority in global climate governance the case of the clean development mechanism
JF - Climate & development
N2 - The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a prominent example of the mix of public and private authority in global climate policy-making. While national governments hold the supreme authority in the CDM, the oversight and daily supervision of the project-based mechanism have been delegated via an intergovernmental body to private corporations that evaluate the environmental performance of individual CDM projects. By focusing on the CDM as a particular instance of private authority in global climate governance, this article analyses the consequences associated with the delegation of authority to private actors. The article critically assesses the role of private auditing corporations, labelled Designated Operational Entities, in the regulatory framework of the CDM and points to serious trade-offs which accompany the privatisation of authority. The article's findings suggest that the promise of innovative modes of governance to increase the effectiveness of international regulation is seriously compromised by the profit-seeking behaviour of private actors. Hence, the article underscores the need to reconsider the balance between public and private authority in global (climate) governance.
KW - carbon markets
KW - Clean Development Mechanism
KW - climate policy
KW - global climate governance
KW - post-2012 negotiations
KW - private authority
Y1 - 2013
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2013.768174
SN - 1756-5529
VL - 5
IS - 1
SP - 46
EP - 54
PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY - Abingdon
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 -
TY - JOUR
A1 - Elsässer, Joshua Philipp
A1 - Hickmann, Thomas
A1 - Jinnah, Sikina
A1 - Oberthur, Sebastian
A1 - Van de Graaf, Thijs
T1 - Institutional interplay in global environmental governance
BT - lessons learned and future research
JF - International environmental agreements: politics, law and economics
N2 - Over the past decades, the growing proliferation of international institutions governing the global environment has impelled institutional interplay as a result of functional and normative overlap across multiple regimes.
This article synthesizes primary contributions made in research on institutional interplay over the past twenty years, with particular focus on publications with International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics. Broadening our understanding about the different types, dimensions, pathways, and effects of institutional interplay, scholars have produced key insights into the ways and means by which international institutions cooperate, manage discord, engage in problem solving, and capture synergies across levels and scales.
As global environmental governance has become increasingly fragmented and complex, we recognize that recent studies have highlighted the growing interactions between transnationally operating institutions in the wake of polycentric governance and hybrid institutional complexes.
However, our findings reveal that there is insufficient empirical and conceptual research to fully understand the relationship, causes, and consequences of interplay between intergovernmental and transnational institutions. Reflecting on the challenges of addressing regulatory gaps and mitigating the crisis of multilateralism, we expound the present research frontier for further advancing research on institutional interplay and provide recommendations to support policy-making.
KW - institutional interplay
KW - transnational institutional interplay
KW - global
KW - environmental governance
KW - transnational governance
KW - multilateral
KW - environmental agreements
Y1 - 2022
U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-022-09569-4
SN - 1567-9764
SN - 1573-1553
VL - 22
IS - 2
SP - 373
EP - 391
PB - Springer
CY - Dordrecht
ER -