24 January 2011

GG2020 fellows present vision for the future of global climate governance at Brookings

On Wednesday 19 January 2011, the GG2020 working group on climate governance presented their report titled Beyond a Global Deal – A UN+ Approach to Climate Governance at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. The group shared their findings and recommendations with a panel of climate policy experts and an audience of representatives from government, NGOs, think tanks, academia and the media.

Following a one-year scenario building process, the working group laid out their vision and recommendations for the future of global climate governance. They proposed a climate governance framework that utilizes bottom-up approaches to produce effective and workable solutions for climate protection in the absence of a global deal.

The GG2020 fellows recommend that:

  • The United States and China actively support an entrepreneurial “bottom-up” approach that encourages emissions reductions by cities, regions, companies and organizations.
  • The private sector and civil society focus on building cross-national partnerships to lead where governments cannot, adopting voluntary emissions-targets at the firm, sector and industry levels.
  • The EU shape a “coalition of the ambitious” of countries committed to aggressive emissions reductions, while using both diplomatic and economic incentives to promote participation by other countries and non-state actors.
  • The UNFCCC expand beyond its state-centric and consensus-based structure to one which explicitly encourages and actively supports a wider variety of approaches to climate governance.

After the presentation, the panelists responded to the GG2020 fellows' proposed framework. The panelists included Adele Morris (policy director for Climate and Energy Economics at Brookings), Jennifer Morgan (director of the Energy and Climate Program at the World Resources Institute), Jennifer Turner (director of the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) and Stephen Hammer (director of the Urban Energy Project at Columbia University). After the panel responded, the fellows and experts had a fruitful discussion with the audience.

The GG2020 program brings together 24 young leaders – eight each from the United States, China and Germany – to jointly develop a vision for the system of global governance in the year 2020 and beyond. The program focuses on the future of global governance in three key issue areas: climate change, nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and global economic governance.

The GG2020 program is jointly conducted by GPPi, the Hertie School of Governance, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Brookings, Fudan University and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. The program is generously supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Transatlantic Program of the German Government (ERP Grant administered by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology).

Download the full GG2020 climate-change report Beyond a Global Deal – A UN+ Approach to Climate Governance.

For more on the GG2020 program, specifically the climate change working group, please visit the GG2020 website or contact Björn Conrad.

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