Climate Change and Global Governance

The author contends that climate governance has been overly dominated by environment departments and a narrow community of specialists, leading to top-down targets in the Kyoto Protocol that lacked domestic feasibility. To succeed post-2012, the author proposes a shift toward sector-specific expert forums involving industry and government, a more flexible approach to binding targets to encourage major emitters like the U.S., and a tighter integration of climate mitigation with poverty alleviation and sustainable development in the Global South. The paper emphasizes that developed nations must demonstrate domestic leadership and leverage trade and investment flows, rather than relying solely on official development assistance, to engage developing countries in a comprehensive mitigation regime.

• Climate governance has historically been led by environment departments and a narrow community of specialists, which may have marginalized the 'mainstream' of policy-making and limited cross-fertilization with other UN institutions.
• The Kyoto Protocol's primary weakness was its top-down process for establishing targets, which prioritized political signaling among G8 leaders over rigorous analysis of whether those targets were achievable or how to achieve them.
• The author proposes a mitigation regime based on expert tables and forums where industry, academics, and governments collaborate on climate-friendly development, potentially operating outside the UNFCCC if necessary to secure the participation of major emitters like the U.S.
• Effective engagement of developing countries requires aligning climate policy with sustainable development and poverty alleviation, specifically by seeking synergies between adaptation and mitigation at the project level.
• Official Development Assistance (ODA) is insufficient to meet climate needs; instead, global trade reforms (such as the Doha Development Agenda) and clean energy investment flows are critical for supporting developing countries' transition.
• The author suggests that the UN should eventually divest the management of international carbon registries for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Joint Implementation (JI), and International Emissions Trading (IET) to external independent oversight bodies.

APA

Drexhage, J. (2007). Climate Change and Global Governance. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/geg_which_way_ahead.pdf

Chicago

Drexhage, John. Climate Change and Global Governance. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2007. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/geg_which_way_ahead.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Drexhage |first1=John |title=Climate Change and Global Governance |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=2007 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/geg_which_way_ahead.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{drexhage2007climate, author = {Drexhage, John}, title = {{Climate Change and Global Governance}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2007}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/geg_which_way_ahead.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }