Aligning transnational climate action with international climate governance: the road from Paris

Abstract

Transnational climate actions have come to constitute a distinguishable sphere of climate governance. Reflecting on the Paris outcome, this article discusses the role of non-State and subnational actors – especially on the road to the Paris climate change conference. It argues that the intergovernmental and transnational spheres of global climate governance could mutually reinforce each other by continuing mobilization efforts to engage non-State actors and by harnessing greater ambition, both from State and non-State actors. For such mutual reinforcement to take effect, however, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change should engage non-State actors consistently and systematically. The article also argues that the Paris outcome and, above all, the building blocks that are part of the decision on enhancing pre-2020 action, constitute the most comprehensive framework of non-State engagement yet, offering a promising basis for mutual reinforcement of the intergovernmental and transnational spheres of global climate governance.