Contesting Legitimacy in Global Environmental Governance

The authors examine how legitimacy is used as a tool for political contestation in the governance of transboundary climate risks (TCRs). By analyzing 41 interviews within the Brazilian-German coffee supply-chain, the paper identifies five distinct governance pathways, each based on a different operationalization of legitimacy. The authors argue that legitimacy is not a static quality but an object of contestation that actors use to promote their preferred governance approaches and delegitimize others, a dynamic they suggest is applicable to broader challenges in global environmental governance.

• The authors identify five distinct governance pathways for managing transboundary climate risks (TCRs), each supported by a different operationalization of legitimacy. These pathways can co-exist, although their relative importance varies by context, and the authors suggest these findings are applicable to other global environmental governance challenges.
• Legitimacy is characterized as an object of political contestation. Actors utilize different sources of legitimacy to validate their own preferred methods of TCR management, undermine the legitimacy of alternative approaches, and promote their specific vision of global environmental governance.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2023). Contesting Legitimacy in Global Environmental Governance. https://www.sei.org/publications/contesting-legitimacy-in-global-environmental-governance/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Contesting Legitimacy in Global Environmental Governance. 2023. https://www.sei.org/publications/contesting-legitimacy-in-global-environmental-governance/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Contesting Legitimacy in Global Environmental Governance |date=3 February 2023 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/contesting-legitimacy-in-global-environmental-governance/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2023contesting, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Contesting Legitimacy in Global Environmental Governance}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2023}, month = feb, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/contesting-legitimacy-in-global-environmental-governance/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }