Karin Bäckstrand: The Role of Non-state Actors in Global Climate Governance after COP22 in Marrakech

Professor in Environmental Social Science, Stockholm University ABSTRACTWhat is the roles of non-state actors, such as civil society, business, indigenous movements and cities, in global climate and th Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen to COP22 in Marrakech, where Marrakech Global Climate Action was launched involving voluntary climate action commitments from more than 12 000 companies, investors, cities and regions, and civil society actors. Over this timeframe, we have seen a form of ‘hybrid multilateralism’ emerge, in which UN climate diplomacy blurs state and non-state participation in complex and intriguing ways with implications for the authority, legitimacy, and effectiveness of climate governance. This speaks, in different ways, to the transformed landscape of climate cooperation with a strengthened interface of multilateral climate diplomacy and non-state climate action and the potential roles, modes, and effects of non-state actors in the post-Paris period.

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