Non-UN initiatives within the UN climate deliberations - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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‘global climate governance is made up of an increasing number of international institutional arrangements which differ in their legal character, public-private constituencies, spatial scope and subject matter’

G8+5 Dialogue, Major Economies Meeting, other high-level political processes
Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate (APP), and other partnerships working on implementation

“It is premature to conclude that the availability of a soft steering approach is causing environmental backlash […]” (Van Asselt 2007)
“[…] while Kyoto is not ‘the only game in town, it is premature to say that climate partnerships have lead to a weakening of UN climate diplomacy.” (Bäckstrand 2006)
“Partnership [AP6] may change the utility calculations of actors when they consider whether to participate in targets-and-timetables approach of Kyoto.” (McGee & Taplin 2006)

How do the potential institutional overlaps emerge in practise?
Are the non-UN processes discussed in the deliberations of and discourses within the UN negotiations during chosen meetings?
Assumption: if there is overlap/tension, it should feature in the statements of the practioneres (negotiators and stakeholders)

Participatory observing and notes from Vienna and Bali, deliberations from NY, webcasts and document archives, interviews (10)

US, Japan, Canada, Australia show explicit preference to soft non-UN processes (they contribute to UN)
EU is polite but critical beyond surface (they should serve UN)
G77 prefers the UN but participates in other fora as well (they should serve UN)
NGOs are fiercely critical (they are attempts to sabotage UN)

The pro-non-UN countries: soft law processes contribute to UN
Possible underlying driver: differentiation between countries, meaning the North vs. South framing in the UN
NGO critisism to soft law: effectiveness and transparency
The G77 position is somewhat schizophrenic

APP and partnerships were largely absent, but Major Economies Meeting (and G8) was an important topic of discussion, and two overlaps emerged
Argumentation relied on producing specific results and feeding them back to UN process -> legitimizing the non-UN via UN
Effect on post-2012 is still to be seen