Multi-Level Governance Of Climate Change In The United Kingdom

With the publication of the IPCC's Special Report on the Impact of 1.5?,limiting global warming has proved to be possibly the most severe challenge facing human societies Climate change is a global issue with impacts on a planetary scale,it requires global governance covering all parties and efforts from all relevant sectorsThe status quo of climate governance comprises multiple levels.The UNFCCC,as the global level governance structure,provides guidance based on the scientific knowledge on climate change reviewed by the IPCC and creates platforms for the intergovernmental negotiations for long-term global objectives.Parties of the UNFCCC,which are the regional and national governance structures,ratify the agreements and adopt the policies reached under the UNFCCC.In turn,they can also exert their influence on the international structure by pushing for progress in the negotiations or derailing the process.The EU,as a regional level governance structure,has been advocating ambitious emissions reductions targets for the international objectives to bind as more Parties as possible.They have also adopted various climate and energy related policies and mechanisms within the regional group to curb emissions and promote the transition towards clean energy.For that,the EU has been credited as a leader in global climate governance.The UK participates in the international structure as an EU Member States as well as an independent nation state.The UK committed in the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement as a part of the EU group target for emissions reductions.Despite the occasional disagreements with the EU in approaches and instruments,the UK has been closely involved in the integration of climate policies between the regional level and the national level.The UK was rather reluctant at first to join the EU level climate governance in the 1980s,and they were indifferent to the binding targets and uniform policies proposed by the EU in the 1990s.Nevertheless,the UK's national level climate governance structure started to take form in the 2000s.Since then,plenty of progress on climate-related national policies took off.In 2008,the UK adopted a groundbreaking legislation,the Climate Change Act,enshrining their long-term emissions reductions target of 80%by 2050 into national legislation.In 201 8,after the publication of the IPCC's Special Report on global warming of 1.5?,the UK in response revised their long-term target of 80%to a Net Zero emissions target in 2019.This dissertation tries to comprehend the interplay between different climate governance levels,namely the global level,the regional level(the EU)and the UK level.To fully understand that,revisiting the construction process of the multi-level governance structure of climate change is indispensable.It will provide a clear panorama of how the structure works,what kind of roles the Parties play,and how they can influence each other.The concept of multi-level governance serves as the basis of this dissertation.It helps to explain how the policies and mechanisms were produced during the formation of climate change governance structures in different levels.It also provides a framework to illustrate the attitudes of the participants in a certain level of governance structure,namely their positions in the negotiations for a common policy in this level.More importantly,this dissertation focuses on the connections of objectives and policies,from the global level to the EU level then to the UK level,and the interplay between the three levels.The author argues that the UK was not a leader in climate change governance in the beginning,but it has continued to improve its climate change policies through participating in the multi-level governance of climate change.Under the influence of EU level climate governance,the British Governments adjusted the methods and attitudes towards climate governance from being inconclusive to active then to proactive,and Britain's change in attitude and strategy to climate governance has also played a crucial role in supporting the EU's participation in climate governance at the global level.The theoretical basis of Multi-Level Governance and its application in climate change governance are summarized in the first chapter.This dissertation proceeds in a chronological order from the origin of global climate governance in the 1980s.The formation of the global level climate governance structure,the EU level climate policies and the conflicts between the EU and the UK on climate governance approaches are demonstrated in the second chapter,which covers the time period from the 1980s to the early 1990s.Three of the most important negotiation periods are introduced respectively in the following chapters.The negotiation processes,the positions of the EU and the UK in each negotiation,and the implementation afterwards are analyzed with special attention to the UK.Finally,to deepen the understanding of the climate governance structure and the policy interrelationships among the global level,the EU level and the UK level,the potential impacts of the UK's exit from the EU on climate change governance are explored.This article draws extensively on the policy papers of the British government,the European Union and international climate governance institutions,and fully uses action plans,declarations and official agreements as first-hand materials to clearly and comprehensively illustrate the British perspective on international governance of climate change.This experience study fills the gap of deficiency in the research of UK's climate policy in the post-Brexit era,and enriches the application of multi-level governance theory in study of nation state's participation in the global governance.This dissertation hopes to contribute to the understanding of the internal working mechanisms of the multi-level governance structure.One of the essential features of the multi-level governance structure is highlighted in this study,namely the interactivity among different levels.Through analyzing the whole process of the British participation in multi-level governance of climate change and taking the possible impacts of Brexit into account,the author hopes to provide references for the future development of multi-level governance of climate change.