ABSTRACT In 2015, an Agreement was made in Paris at the 21st conference of the Parties of the UN. The purpose of the Paris Agreement was to collectively target climate change and keep the global warming under 2°C. Since then, the strength of this Agreement has been evaluated in numerous ways, optimists and pessimists present arguments for different theories and opinions. While some argue that the agreement is too weak because of its non-binding features and vagueness, others argue that the very same vagueness has opened up a new door. To contribute with a new perspective, the aim of this study is to describe and analyse different conceptions of nature in the Nationally Determined Contributions submitted to the Paris Agreement by Parties who signed it. Based on previous research about different conceptions of nature, an analytical framework is built and used through a text analysis of some of the Contributions. The findings of this qualitative, descriptive case study are meant to create a deeper understanding of the Contributions made to the Paris Agreement, describing if different conceptions of nature are found and whether this affects the way the Parties aim to tackle the climate crisis.

As climate change continues to permeate the current political discourse and its effects becomes increasingly visible, the way countries respond to the situation is crucial for determining the extent of future environmental degradation. The Paris Agreement is an attempt to mitigate and adapt to the situation, however the western values tied to it have been criticised. The effectiveness of democracy in environmental protection has been questioned, especially its ties to capitalism and individualism. This thesis uses the theory of authoritarian environmentalism to investigate this debate and see whether the claims have any legitimacy in the context of the Paris Agreement and the promises made in relation to it.     This thesis is a structured focused comparison which compares the policies and projects in three democratic and three autocratic African countries in close geographical proximity and similar environmental situations, to investigate if and in what way the type of government affects the promises made, and whether they are kept, to the Paris Agreement and its signatories. The indicators used for the thesis include policies and internationally funded projects, due to their accessibility, however it is worth noting that they only give a crude approximation of the activities and ambition in the countries, with several others having important roles.    The quality of the six countries’ Intended Nationally Determined Contributions is investigated and followed up with an evaluation of some of the projects active to examine if the countries are implementing their promised efforts, already in these early, yet important, stages of the Agreement. In addition, the theory is applied to the countries’ efforts and some conclusions are reached, including the overall good quality of the countries’ environmental work and confirming that authoritarian countries can produce quality policies, while still having lacking areas, similar to their democratic counterparts, pointing to the complexity of the topic.

Climate change is a critical threat to all the countries of the world today, not least because of the severe human rights infringements it may well lead to. However, although climate change is a collective, global challenge, there are considerable inequalities regarding contribution to cause and burden of the effects. Those suffering the most from the effects of climate change tend to be least responsible for the emissions causing it. The theoretical concept of climate justice aims to address these injustices, between different countries as well as societal groups and generations. To contribute to the understanding of how this concept is present in the global climate debate today, this thesis examines a selection of the Paris Agreement parties’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) from a perspective of climate justice. The analysis is based on a theoretical framework developed by Andrea Schapper, focusing on three dimensions of climate justice – international, intra-societal and intergenerational. Through this framework, a total of 36 NDCs are studied, the top and bottom three countries for each world region based on levels of cumulative CO2-emissions. The aim of the case selection has been to obtain a variation regarding development status, vulnerability to the effects of climate change, levels of greenhouse gas emissions and geographical location of the studied countries. The results of the study show that all the dimensions are present in at least some of the studied NDCs, but to a very different extent. Primarily, the parties discuss the issue of international justice. Intra-societal justice is touched upon quite frequently but very few bring up the matter of intergenerational justice. Moreover, all three dimensions are predominantly handled by countries classified as ”developing” (according to the UN statistics division).  This implies that climate justice is a higher priority for the most vulnerable to and least responsible for climate change, which is problematic for many reasons. Above all, it indicates that rich, industrialized countries are reluctant to take responsibility for their current and historical emissions, as well as the effect those emissions have on others.

How does the international climate policy frameworks influence the domestic institutional responses to climate mitigation in emerging economies? And how, in turn, do domestic institutions and politics in emerging economies influence the fate of international climate policy frameworks? The thesis provides answers to these questions by studying domestic engagements with Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions in three emerging economies – India, Brazil, and South Africa. The thesis specifically studies how these engagements were influenced by the domestic institutional context provided by national climate policy, norms, and institutional capacity in the three countries. Drawing upon the variations in the engagements with nationally appropriate mitigation actions, made visible by use of the policy cycle as a heuristic device, the thesis informs the implementation of another nascent, yet prevalent, international climate policy framework – Nationally Determined Contributions. The thesis identifies how engagements with nationally appropriate mitigation actions varied in India, Brazil, and South Africa in agenda-setting, policy formulation, decision-making, implementation, and evaluation. In cases where international support is considered crucial for taking mitigation actions, external factors such as lack of clarity on definitional aspects and availability of international support can hamper the prospects of such frameworks at the agenda-setting and policy formulation stages. Efforts to engage with these frameworks under this uncertainty are held back by non-decisions, overriding national climate policy, as well as by uneven inter-ministerial coordination. The thesis argues that successful implementation of upcoming Nationally Determined  Contributions will be influenced by a country’s ability to align them with its national climate policy, localization of the transnational norms, and the extent to which efforts to enhance institutional capacity for  coordinating the implementation of national climate policy are made. In sum, the effective implementation of International Climate Policy Frameworks will be dependent on the willingness of the state to  provide oversight and coordination, and clarity on the availability of international support. / Hur influerar ramverken för internationell klimatpolicy nationella institutionella åtgärder för att begränsa utsläpp av växthusgaser i framväxande ekonomier? Och hur påverkar, i sin tur, dessa länders nationella institutioner och politik dessa ramverk för internationell klimatpolicy? Denna avhandling studerar nationella engagemang i Nationellt lämpliga utsläppsminskande åtgärder (s.k. NAMAs) i tre framväxande ekonomier – Indien, Brasilien, och Sydafrika. Avhandlingen studerar i synnerhet hur dessa engagemang har påverkats av de tre ländernas nationella klimatpolicy, normer, och institutionella kapacitet. Genom att använda policycykeln som heuristiskt analysverktyg identifierar avhandlingen variationer i hur länderna utvecklat sitt engagemang i NAMAs. Avhandlingen visar att och hur engagemang med nationellt lämpliga utsläppsminskande åtgärder varierar mellan Indien, Brasilien, och Sydafrika vad det gäller fastställande av dagordning, policyformulering, beslutsfattande, implementering, och policyutvärdering. I de fall internationellt stöd anses vara avgörande för att vidta utsläppsminskande åtgärder kan externa faktorer såsom bristande definition av de internationella policyramverken för åtgärder samt tillgänglighet på internationellt stöd försvåra utsikterna för att internationella ramverk tas upp i de nationella dagordnings- och policyformuleringsstadierna. Arbetet med dessa ramverk försvåras även av icke-beslut och ojämn interministeriell koordinering samt om tvingande nationell klimatpolicy inte ligger i linje med de internationella besluten. Avhandlingens slutsatser har betydelse för implementeringen av ett annat framväxande ramverk för internationell klimatpolicy: Nationellt fastställda bidrag (s.k. NDC:er). En framgångsrik implementering av   NDC:er kommer att influeras av en stats förmåga att anpassa dem till nationell klimatpolicy samt transnationella normer, så att dessa överensstämmer eller jämkas med nationella normer, samt den institutionella kapaciteten för att koordinera implementering av nationell klimatpolicy. En effektiv implementering av ramverk för internationell klimatpolicy kommer, sammanfattningsvis, att vara beroende av staters villighet att tillhandahålla tillsyn och koordinering, samt tydlighet vad gäller tillgänglighet till internationellt stöd.