Blind Spots on Global Climate Governance, 16.02.2007

Die internationale Klimapolitik weist schwere Defizite auf, was soziale Fragen, die Einbindung lokaler Akteure und die Umstellung auf erneuerbare Energien angeht. Dies ist das Fazit der internationalen Tagung "Blind Spots of Global Climate Governance", die in Berlin stattfand. Vor dem Hintergrund der neusten dramatischen Erkenntnisse zum Klimawandel, wie sie beispielsweise in der aktuellen Studie des zwischenstaatlichen Wissenschaftsgremiums zum Klimawandel (IPCC) veröffentlicht wurden, sei ein tief greifendes Umdenken in der Klimapolitik notwendig.

On the 16th of February 2005 history was made in climate politics. On this day a binding contract under international law for the protection of the global climate came into force, the Kyoto Protocol. After ten years of negotiations, the industrial countries entered into a commitment that the discharge of greenhouse gases which are detrimental to the climate should be reduced by 5.2% between the years 2008 and 2012. In order to achieve this goal, all hopes turned to the flexible mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol,
a mixture of political regulations and economic devices. Within international negotiations as well as in public debates, climate change is considered as being the largest global challenge for humankind in the 21st century. Nation states cannot fulfil this task alone,so it is assumed.For this reason,actors from academia and civil society like NGOs,trade unions and especially the private sector are equally in demand - and rightly so in a politically complex multi-level system reaching from the local to the global level. Together joint solutions and strategies shall be drafted and implemented so that new multi-level comprehensive steering, participation and cooperation mechanisms can be sought.
Although these dimensions of global or multi-level governance (participation of NGOs, the involvement of academia, joint responsibility of the business sector) are emerging in international environmental politics,core questions concerning democratic and fair participation,a socio-ecological re-shaping of energy systems as well as a widely spread effective public debate,have hardly been discussed.With this design, the international conference aims to address the "Blind Spots"of the currently predominant technological
and economic orientated climate policy,and to place them at the centre of the discussion. For this purpose Multi Level Gover-nance is used as an analytical tool.Its surplus value lies in opening up a new perspective on political process which is characterised by  multiple actor and level involvement and interaction. Not only have the rapidly increasing emissions in the developing as well as the industrial countries already challenged today's agreements of international climate policy. Moreover, through its narrow focus on market solutions (flexible mechanisms) the Kyoto Protocol neglects comprehensive multi-level socio-political and socio-ecological coherences and interdependencies as well as economic contradictions: How can public awareness and interest for climate change be captured when predominantly powerful interests are prevailing? What are the interplays and interrelations between the impact of climate change and existing underlying societal and political inequalities? How can people participate in international decision making processes which have an impact on their own lives? And how important are global security aspects in fossil energy supply compared to a demanding climate policy. The international conference "Blind Spots of Global Climate Governance" aims to pursue these questions and therefore focuses
on the following key topics: "Discourse", "Justice", "Democracy" and "Security". In the closing panel, a discussion will be held on "challenges of a socio-ecological multi-level Governance" in the context of the genuine structures of international climate policy". The "Blind Spots of Global Climate Governance"conference is part of the KyotoPlus Project of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The KyotoPlus Project goes beyond the already existing agreements and aims to develop further productive ideas for advanced
and comprehensive measurements to protect the global climate. The demands for global democracy, justice and rule of law, for justice in the global economy and international security are closely linked to the climate debate.The analysis of these interplays, interrelations and contradictions are therefore an imperative - as well as the search for comprehensive and encompassing solutions.

The conference "Blind Spots of Global Climate Governance" was organised by the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation and SÖF-project "Global Governance und Klimawandel". 

Press release