L'impasse de la gouvernance climatique globale depuis vingt ans. Pour un autre ordre de gouvernementalité

Abstract

At once a scientific question and political problem, climate change has given rise to a complex system of arenas, institutions, experts and varied actors. They are all engaged in a process of world governance in the aim of finding solutions. That being the case, how is one to explain the fact that this process has achieved so little in the way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions ? In order to answer this question, I focus on the manner in which the framing of the climate problem has been conceived, understood and embodied in negotiations. I review several of its characteristic elements : the pollution paradigm, globalization, the top-down strategy of "burden sharing", market and compensation mechanisms, the specific interactions between science and politics, which entail various models of expertise and give rise to contradictory expectations, and, finally, the theme of adaptation, which has come to occupy an increasingly important place on the UN's governance agenda for reasons relating to reconfigurations of the geopolitics of climate. The failure of the Copenhagen Conference (2009), which was presented as a decisive moment for dealing with climate issues at a planetary level, challenges this framing, and calls for a rethinking of the order of governmentality of the climate problem. To that end, I put forward a few proposals and suggestions for future study.