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Protecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative Legitimacy

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Summary:Despite three decades of global climate negotiations and high expectations for the 2015 Paris Agreement, global emissions continue to grow. To protect future generations from severe harm, scholars, environmentalists, and politicians alike explore potential supplements to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process. One potential supplement is climate clubs of a type where a small number of “enthusiastic” countries embark on ambitious mitigation efforts while encouraging other, more “reluctant” countries to join. Previous research has shown that this club type possesses a significant potential for expanding membership and eventually becoming highly effective in reducing global emissions. A common criticism of climate clubs, however, is that they lack legitimacy. Assessing this criticism, we argue that climate clubs of the type considered here can be normatively legitimate. The main challenge for normative legitimacy concerns climate clubs’ use of incentives, particularly negative incentives, to attract members. However, we argue that even negative incentives for participation can be legitimate, assuming they meet a set of relevant legitimacy criteria—including that the club respects human rights, provides a comparative benefit, maintains institutional integrity, implements only proportional incentives, and fulfills a requisite set of epistemic criteria. We also argue that the normative legitimacy of climate clubs’ use of incentives for compliance is less challenging than the normative legitimacy of their use of incentives for participation.
Main Authors:Huseby, Robert
Other Authors:Hovi, Jon; Skodvin, Tora
Subject:climate change; climate clubs; democracy; future generations; legitimacy
Year:2024
Country:Portugal
Document type:article
Access type:unknown
Associated institution:Cogitatio Press
Language:English
Origin:Politics and Governance
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author Huseby, Robert
author2 Hovi, Jon
Skodvin, Tora
author2_role author
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author_facet Huseby, Robert
Hovi, Jon
Skodvin, Tora
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datacite.creators.creator.creatorName.fl_str_mv Huseby, Robert
Hovi, Jon
Skodvin, Tora
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datacite.subjects.subject.fl_str_mv climate change; climate clubs; democracy; future generations; legitimacy
datacite.titles.title.fl_str_mv Protecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative Legitimacy
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Huseby, Robert
Hovi, Jon
Skodvin, Tora
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7674
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Cogitatio Press
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dc.rights.rights.copyright.fl_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Politics and Governance; Vol 12 (2024): Considering Future Generations in Democratic Governance
2183-2463
10.17645/pag.i379
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv climate change; climate clubs; democracy; future generations; legitimacy
dc.title.fl_str_mv Protecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative Legitimacy
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
description Despite three decades of global climate negotiations and high expectations for the 2015 Paris Agreement, global emissions continue to grow. To protect future generations from severe harm, scholars, environmentalists, and politicians alike explore potential supplements to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process. One potential supplement is climate clubs of a type where a small number of “enthusiastic” countries embark on ambitious mitigation efforts while encouraging other, more “reluctant” countries to join. Previous research has shown that this club type possesses a significant potential for expanding membership and eventually becoming highly effective in reducing global emissions. A common criticism of climate clubs, however, is that they lack legitimacy. Assessing this criticism, we argue that climate clubs of the type considered here can be normatively legitimate. The main challenge for normative legitimacy concerns climate clubs’ use of incentives, particularly negative incentives, to attract members. However, we argue that even negative incentives for participation can be legitimate, assuming they meet a set of relevant legitimacy criteria—including that the club respects human rights, provides a comparative benefit, maintains institutional integrity, implements only proportional incentives, and fulfills a requisite set of epistemic criteria. We also argue that the normative legitimacy of climate clubs’ use of incentives for compliance is less challenging than the normative legitimacy of their use of incentives for participation.
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Hovi, Jon
Skodvin, Tora
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spelling en-USProtecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative LegitimacyHuseby, RobertHovi, JonSkodvin, Toraclimate change; climate clubs; democracy; future generations; legitimacyCopyright (c) 2024 Robert Huseby, Jon Hovi, Tora Skodvinhttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7674DOIhttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7674URLHasVersionhttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7674/3642URLHasVersionhttps://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7674DOI2024-02-28en-USDespite three decades of global climate negotiations and high expectations for the 2015 Paris Agreement, global emissions continue to grow. To protect future generations from severe harm, scholars, environmentalists, and politicians alike explore potential supplements to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process. One potential supplement is climate clubs of a type where a small number of “enthusiastic” countries embark on ambitious mitigation efforts while encouraging other, more “reluctant” countries to join. Previous research has shown that this club type possesses a significant potential for expanding membership and eventually becoming highly effective in reducing global emissions. A common criticism of climate clubs, however, is that they lack legitimacy. Assessing this criticism, we argue that climate clubs of the type considered here can be normatively legitimate. The main challenge for normative legitimacy concerns climate clubs’ use of incentives, particularly negative incentives, to attract members. However, we argue that even negative incentives for participation can be legitimate, assuming they meet a set of relevant legitimacy criteria—including that the club respects human rights, provides a comparative benefit, maintains institutional integrity, implements only proportional incentives, and fulfills a requisite set of epistemic criteria. We also argue that the normative legitimacy of climate clubs’ use of incentives for compliance is less challenging than the normative legitimacy of their use of incentives for participation.Cogitatio Pressapplication/pdfen-USPolitics and Governance; Vol 12 (2024): Considering Future Generations in Democratic Governance2183-246310.17645/pag.i379engjournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501literatureVoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
spellingShingle Protecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative Legitimacy
Huseby, Robert
climate change; climate clubs; democracy; future generations; legitimacy
status SINGLETON
status_str VoR
subject.fl_str_mv climate change; climate clubs; democracy; future generations; legitimacy
title Protecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative Legitimacy
title_full Protecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative Legitimacy
title_fullStr Protecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative Legitimacy
title_full_unstemmed Protecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative Legitimacy
title_short Protecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative Legitimacy
title_sort Protecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative Legitimacy
topic climate change; climate clubs; democracy; future generations; legitimacy
topic_facet climate change; climate clubs; democracy; future generations; legitimacy
url https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7674
visible 1