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Transnationalism in Global Climate Politics

Course content

According to the UN, 18,279 sub-national and non-state actors were involved in 27,174 actions in 2020 to address climate change and advance the goals of the Paris Agreement. Today, such 'transnational' actors and forms of governance are central to global climate change politics. This course examines these developments through the lens of broader debates about transnationalism in world politics. We will explore how and under what conditions sub-national and non-state actors such as cities, corporations, NGOs, and Indigenous peoples have become central to global efforts to address climate change. We also will consider the diverse forms of transnational governance led by these actors and the relationship of these initiatives to multilateral treaties and other state-based forms of climate change regulation. We will review efforts to assess whether transnationalism contributes to a more effective global response to climate change and reflect on the normative issues raised as transnational actors and forms of governance become more deeply embedded in global climate politics.

 

Indicative Topics:

  • The Paris Agreement: A new era in global climate governance
  • Transnationalism as a response to ‘wicked’ problems
  • Theoretical foundations
  • Transnational actors at the UN negotiations
  • The climate justice movement
  • Cities and city networks
  • Corporations
  • Democratizing global climate governance?
  • Transnational climate governance initiatives
  • Private governance
  • Governing nature-based solutions
  • The climate governance complex
  • Effectiveness and transformation
  • Looking ahead 

 

Education

MSc in Political Science

MSc in Social Science

MSc in Security Risk Management

Bachelor in Political Science

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

Students will be able to

  • Give an account of the various types of actors and initiatives that constitute the field of transnational climate change politics
  • Identify the interrelationships between transnational actors and forms of governance and the UN climate regime.
  • Understand and reflect on the conditions that have given rise to transnationalism in global climate politics and its consequences for the global governance of climate change.

Skills:

Students will be able to

  • Identify and assess different theoretical and methodological approaches used in the study of transnationalism in global climate politics
  • Apply theoretical and methodological approaches to conduct empirical analysis of transnational actors and governance initiatives related to climate change

Competences:

Students will learn

  • Critical thinking
  • Independent working
  • Oral communication and writing

 

Classes will be interactive. They will combine group work, discussion and lecture-style elements. They will actively engage with a variety of texts.

(illustrative)

  • Abbott, K.W., 2012. The transnational regime complex for climate change. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 30(4), pp.571-590. (20 pp)
  • Allan, J.I. and Hadden, J., 2017. Exploring the framing power of NGOs in global climate politics. Environmental Politics, 26(4), pp.600-620. (21 pp)
  • Andonova, L.B., Betsill, M.M. and Bulkeley, H., 2009. Transnational climate governance. Global environmental politics, 9(2), pp.52-73. (22 pp)
  • Andonova, L.B., Hale, T.N. and Roger, C.B., 2017. National policy and transnational governance of climate change: Substitutes or complements?. International Studies Quarterly, 61(2), pp.253-268. (16 pp)
  • Avant, D.C., M. Finnemore, and S. Sell. 2010. Who Governs the Globe? In Who Governs the Globe? D. Avant, M. Finnermore and S. Sell, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-34. (34 pp)
  • Bäckstrand, K., Kuyper, J.W., Linnér, B.O. and Lövbrand, E., 2017. Non-state actors in global climate governance: from Copenhagen to Paris and beyond. Environmental Politics 4: 561-579. (19 pp)
  • Bernstein, S. and Hoffmann, M., 2019. Climate politics, metaphors and the fractal carbon trap. Nature Climate Change, 9(12), pp.919-925. (7 pp)
  • Betsill, M. M. 2015. NGOs. In Research Handbook on Climate Governance, K. Bäckstrand and E. Lövbrand, eds. Elgar. Pp. 251-61 (11 pp)
  • Bulkeley, H., Andonova, L., Bäckstrand, K., Betsill, M., Compagnon, D., Duffy, R., Kolk, A., Hoffmann, M., Levy, D., Newell, P. and Milledge, T., 2012. Governing climate change transnationally: assessing the evidence from a database of sixty initiatives. Environment and planning C: Government and Policy, 30(4), pp.591-612. (22 pp)
  • Bulkeley, H., Betsill, M.M., Compagnon, D., Hale, T., Hoffmann, M.J., Newell, P. and Paterson, M., 2018. Transnational governance: charting new directions post-Paris. In Governing Climate Change: Polycentricity in Action, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 63-81. (19 pp)
  • Chan, S., Boran, I., van Asselt, H., Iacobuta, G., Niles, N., Rietig, K., Scobie, M., Bansard, J.S., Delgado Pugley, D., Delina, L.L. and Eichhorn, F., 2019. Promises and risks of nonstate action in climate and sustainability governance. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 10(3), p.e572. (8 pp)
  • Chan, S., Brandi, C. and Bauer, S., 2016. Aligning transnational climate action with international climate governance: The road from Paris. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law, 25(2), pp.238-247. (10 pp)
  • Chan, S., Falkner, R., Goldberg, M. and Van Asselt, H., 2018. Effective and geographically balanced? An output-based assessment of non-state climate actions. Climate Policy, 18(1), pp.24-35. (10 pp)
  • Chan, S., van Asselt, H., Hale, T., Abbott, K.W., Beisheim, M., Hoffmann, M., Guy, B., Höhne, N., Hsu, A., Pattberg, P. and Pauw, P., 2015. Reinvigorating international climate policy: A comprehensive framework for effective nonstate action. Global Policy, 6(4), pp.466-473. (8 pp)
  • Ciplet, D., 2014. Contesting climate injustice: Transnational advocacy network struggles for rights in UN climate politics. Global Environmental Politics, 14(4), pp.75-96. (22 pp)
  • Cobut, L., Orsini, A., Biedenkopf, K., Blondeel, M., Fuchs, G., Kavvatha, E., Misonne, D., Niet, I. and Papin, M., 2019. Focusing on non-state actions instead of non-state actors in the context
  •  of sustainability transitions. Global Policy, (October), pp.11-18. (8 pp)
  • Cole, D.H., 2015. Advantages of a polycentric approach to climate change policy. Nature Climate Change, 5(2), pp.114-118. (5 pp)
  • Dzebo, A. and Stripple, J., 2015. Transnational adaptation governance: An emerging fourth era of adaptation. Global Environmental Change, 35, pp.423-435. (13 pp)
  • Fisher, D.R., 2010. COP-15 in Copenhagen: How the merging of movements left civil society out in the cold. Global Environmental Politics, 10(2), pp.11-17. (7 pp)
  • Gordon, D.J. and Johnson, C.A., 2018. City-networks, global climate governance, and the road to 1.5 C. Current opinion in environmental sustainability, 30, pp.35-41. (7 pp)
  • Green, J.F., 2013. Order out of chaos: public and private rules for managing carbon. Global Environmental Politics, 13(2), pp.1-25. (25 pp)
  • Hale, T., 2020. Transnational actors and transnational governance in global environmental politics. Annual review of political science, 23, pp.203-220. (18 pp)
  • Hale, T.N., Chan, S., Hsu, A., Clapper, A., Elliott, C., Faria, P., Kuramochi, T., McDaniel, S., Morgado, M., Roelfsema, M. and Santaella, M., 2021. Sub-and non-state climate action: A framework to assess progress, implementation and impact. Climate Policy, 21(3), pp.406-420. (15 pp)
  • Hsu, A., Brandt, J., Widerberg, O., Chan, S. and Weinfurter, A., 2020. Exploring links between national climate strategies and non-state and subnational climate action in nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Climate Policy, 20(4), pp.443-457. (15 pp)
  • Jordan, A.J., Huitema, D., Hildén, M., Van Asselt, H., Rayner, T.J., Schoenefeld, J.J., Tosun, J., Forster, J. and Boasson, E.L., 2015. Emergence of polycentric climate governance and its future prospects. Nature Climate Change, 5(11), pp.977-982. (6 pp)
  • Kern, K. and Bulkeley, H., 2009. Cities, Europeanization and multi‐level governance: governing climate change through 
  •  
  • transnational municipal networks. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 47(2), pp.309-332. (24 pp)
  • Kuyper, J.W., Linnér, B.O. and Schroeder, H., 2018. Non‐state actors in hybrid global climate governance: justice, legitimacy, and effectiveness in a post‐Paris era. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 9(1), p.e497. (18 pp)
  • Marion Suiseeya, K.R., Zanotti, L. and Haapala, K., 2021. Navigating the spaces between human rights and justice: cultivating Indigenous representation in global environmental governance. The Journal of Peasant Studies, pp.1-25. (25 pp)
  • Nasiritousi, N., Hjerpe, M. and Linnér, B.O., 2016. The roles of non-state actors in climate change governance: understanding agency through governance profiles. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 16(1), pp.109-126. (18 pp)
  • Nielsen, A.B. and Papin, M., 2021. The hybrid governance of environmental transnational municipal networks: Lessons from 100 Resilient Cities. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 39(4), pp. 667-685. (19 pp)
  • Okereke, C., Bulkeley, H. and Schroeder, H., 2009. Conceptualizing climate governance beyond the international regime. Global environmental politics, 9(1), pp.58-78. (21 pp)
  • Ostrom, E., 2010. Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change. Global environmental change, 20(4), pp.550-557. (8 pp)
  • Roger, C. and Dauvergne, P., 2016. The rise of transnational governance as a field of study. International Studies Review, 18(3), pp.415-437. (23 pp)
  • Thew, H., 2018. Youth participation and agency in the United Nations framework convention on climate change. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 18(3), pp.369-389. (21 pp)
  • Van der Ven, H., Bernstein, S. and Hoffmann, M., 2017. Valuing the contributions of nonstate and subnational actors to climate governance. Global Environmental Politics, 17(1), pp.1-20. (21 pp)
  • Widerberg, O. and Pattberg, P., 2017. Accountability challenges in the transnational regime complex for climate change. Review of Policy Research, 34(1), pp.68-87. (20 pp)
Continuous feedback during the course
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)

 

 

ECTS
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Portfolio
Type of assessment details
Portfolio exam
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Criteria for exam assessment

Criteria for exam assesment

  • Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course's goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
  • Grade 7 is given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
  • Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner

Single subject courses (day)

  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • English
  • 28

Kursusinformation

Language
English
Course number
ASTK18395U
ECTS
7,5 ECTS
Programme level
Full Degree Master
Bachelor
Duration

1 semester

Placement
Spring
Schedulegroup
.
Studyboard
Department of Political Science, Study Council
Contracting department
  • Department of Political Science
Contracting faculty
  • Faculty of Social Sciences
Course Coordinator
  • Michele Merrill Betsill   (9-7334686b7a796f7272466f6c7934717b346a71)
Saved on the 31-10-2022
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University of Copenhagen
Nørregade 10
1165 København K