Insights from South Africa

By Emily Tyler and Brent Cloete The Paris COP in November 2015 is expected to usher in a dramatic change in the international climate negotiations. A global climate agreement is on the cards that for the first time will require all countries, both developed and developing, to undertake actions to combat climate change. Exactly what form […]

The Political Economy of Readiness for REDD+

By Peter Minang and Meine van Noordwijk The REDD+ process is an internationally agreed mechanism whereby developing countries are rewarded for reducing emissions through various actions that include reducing emissions from deforestation, reducing emissions from forest degradation, conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of carbon stocks. The structure is such that […]

Global Climate Policy Conference (GCPC) 2014: Summary and Reflections

By Heleen de Coninck, with contributions from Climate Strategies and CDKN teams What can researchers contribute to the current efforts to break the logjam at the international climate change negotiations? Over 80 participants representing various groups of stakeholders gathered at ODI in London on the 7th and 8th of May 2014, to take part in the first Global […]

The UNFCCC: 20 Years On

By Joanna Depledge Twenty years ago today, on 21 March 1994, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change came into force. The world was, of course, very different then. The EU had only 12 members. The Russian Federation and Eastern Europe were in the throes of massive political and economic dislocation. The internet was […]

Going Beyond Two Degrees?

By Tim Rayner and Andrew Jordan As the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change convenes for the 19th time in Warsaw, the likelihood that the world can fulfill the Convention’s ultimate objective of avoiding ‘dangerous climate change’ is looking ever slimmer. Since the mid-1990s, that objective has been widely […]

The Changing Geopolitics of Climate Change

By Charlotte Streck Over the last three decades, climate change has graduated from an environmental concern to a matter of geopolitics in the twenty-first century. The political and socio-economic environment in which international climate negotiations take place has seen remarkable changes. The problem of climate change has become more urgent and its effects more visible. […]

Consumption-Based Greenhouse Gas Accounting: A “Policy Journey”

By John Barrett While there have been a number of papers that calculate consumption-based GHG emissions, we were keen to present a paper [now published in Climate Policy Journal, Vol. 13, issue 4] that documents its application to climate policy, recognising the uncertainty in the calculations and presenting the future research challenges. In this blog […]

Was Blocking SBI in Bonn Justified?

By Anna Korppoo I was asked after Bonn whether Russia, Ukraine and Belarus blocking SBI seemed justified. Blocking SBI (or any other negotiation stream) is of course a radical undertaking as it wastes the scarce negotiation time the UN process has per year. However, this time the action of these three countries, Russia, Ukraine and […]

Carbon Fiddles While the Planet Burns

By David Levy A milestone on the road to catastrophic climate change was reached last Thursday, May 9th, when the Mauna Loa research center in Hawaii recorded atmospheric CO2 levels above 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time. The level during pre-industrial times was around 280 ppm, and has been rising at an […]

More Democratic Legitimacy through Civil Society Involvement in the UNFCCC Negotiations?

By Robert Gampfer Over the past two decades, civil society organizations (CSOs) have become integral to global climate negotiations. In 2011, 1490 organizations were accredited as observers; most of which were environmental groups, research institutions, and business associations. Moreover, 70% of national delegations to the COPs (2011) included CSO representatives among their members. Both activists […]