Building authority and legitimacy in transnational climate change governance: Evidence from the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force

Di Gregorio, Monica, Massarella, Kate, Schroeder, Heike ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2342-2030, Brockhaus, Maria and Pham, Thuy Thu (2020) Building authority and legitimacy in transnational climate change governance: Evidence from the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force. Global Environmental Change, 64. ISSN 0959-3780

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Abstract

Transnational climate change initiatives have increased in number and relevance within the global climate change regime. Despite being largely welcomed, there are concerns about their ability to deliver ambitious climate action and about their democratic legitimacy. This paper disentangles the nature of both authority and legitimacy of a specific form of transnational networks, transgovernmental networks of subnational governments. It then investigates how a major transgovernmental initiative focusing on tropical forests, the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force, attempts to command authority and to build and maintain its legitimacy. The paper illustrates the particular challenges faced by initiatives formed primarily by jurisdictions from the Global South. Three major trade-offs related to authority and legitimacy dimensions are identified: first, the difficulty of balancing the need for increased representation with performance on ambitious climate goals; second, the need to deliver effectiveness while ensuring transparency of governance processes; and third, the limited ability to leverage formal authority of members to deliver climate action in local jurisdictions, while depending on external funds from the Global North.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: authority,climate change mitigation,forests,legitimacy,transgovernmental networks,transnational climate change governance,global and planetary change,geography, planning and development,ecology,management, monitoring, policy and law,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2306
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of International Development
University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Climate Change
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Global Environmental Justice
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Globalisation and CSR
University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 21 Jul 2020 01:38
Last Modified: 14 Jun 2023 23:51
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/76204
DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102126

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