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Bridging the Gap - the role of non-state action

Höhne, Niklas / Philip Drost with the contributing authors Fatemeh Bakhtiari / Sander Chan / Ann Gardiner et al.
External Publications (2016)

in: The Emissions Gap Report 2016: a UNEP Synthesis Report, Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environment (UNEP), 23-30

ISBN: 978-92-807-3617-5

Global climate change governance is becoming increasingly diverse, with many actors, other than national governments, undertaking climate change management actions. In this chapter, the focus is on actors like the private sector, civil society organisations, cities and regions, and other subnational actors, often referred to as non-state actors. Their actions could be either individual or cooperative. The 2015 Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) showed a growing institutionalisation of processes aimed at engaging non-state actors in efforts to manage climate change. This chapter assesses the role of non-state actors bridging the emissions gap and summarises the role of their actions in the UNFCCC process. The chapter describes key features of a sample of around 200 cooperative initiatives, and provides a synthesis of recent estimates of emission reduction potentials by non-state actor actions. Finally, it highlights a number of issues where additional research is required.

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