Almost twenty years after the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and negotiations over mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions began, the negotiations continue to fall short of scientific goals to curb warming. Current UNFCCC procedures do not provide for mediation in the process of negotiations. Public policy mediation has been used often at local, national, and regional levels to resolve environmental disputes. The characteristics of the climate change negotiations suggest that mediation may provide a number of benefits to the negotiations. Scholars and practitioners have developed criteria for determining the suitability of applying mediation to a dispute. The UNFCCC negotiations meet the majority of these criteria. However, the urgency of the issue, its complexity, the number of stakeholders, institutional capacity, and the power parity of the parties suggest mediation may be most beneficial if applied on a small scale at the UNFCCC negotiations. / 10000-01-01

The aim of this thesis is to analyze agenda manipulation in international negotiations. The analysis is focused on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its conferences in the past three year. A theoretical framework of agenda manipulation is established and the conferences are analyzed through a series of comparative case studies. The theoretical framework offer insight into 1) power politics and state interest, 2) negotiation as a method to manage external relations, 3) the existing framework in which the actors try to advance their agenda and 4) the various internal and external influences on state behavior.

It is more than 20 years since 1985, when world climate and atmospheric scientists first issued an authoritative warning of the danger of global warming. In 1988, scientists, environmentalists and politicians from 48 countries endorsed the Toronto Declaration to address global warming that called for a twenty percent worldwide reduction in CO emissions by the year 2005 leading to an eventual fifty percent reduction. Contestation and collaboration in the global climate change public policy process, involving a wide range of actors, has continued since then. Two organisations were founded in 1989 by non-state actors on opposite sides of the climate policy debate. These were the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), which was established by a range of US business interests, and Climate Action Network (CAN) established by a range of environmental and scientific non-governmental organisations. The thesis documents, analyses and compares how each organisation was formed, organised and developed. It reviews how GCC and CAN enabled more effective national and transnational advocacy and how they fostered opposing policy coalitions on climate policy. The respective approaches are assessed, evaluated and contrasted as each sought to gain support for their opposing policy positions in the global climate change policy process. The research uses a neo-Gramscian theoretical perspective and develops and applies an analytical framework focused on policy coalitions of state and non-state actors to investigate the role that non-state actors played in the global climate policy process. GCC and CAN played major roles within opposing policy coalitions that became particularly important in shaping the outcome of the global and national climate policy processes. The thesis focuses on the role of GCC and CAN and their associated policy coalitions in influencing the framing, developing, implementation and review of global climate policy. It examines the global climate change policy process through this analytical lens of contestation between policy coalitions from the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988 to the first Meeting of the Parties of the ratified Kyoto Protocol in 2005. The thesis assesses the analytical framework and concludes by identifying critical issues that the current global public policy processes have encountered in developing and implementing effective global climate change public policy.

It is more than 20 years since 1985, when world climate and atmospheric scientists first issued an authoritative warning of the danger of global warming. In 1988, scientists, environmentalists and politicians from 48 countries endorsed the Toronto Declaration to address global warming that called for a twenty percent worldwide reduction in CO emissions by the year 2005 leading to an eventual fifty percent reduction. Contestation and collaboration in the global climate change public policy process, involving a wide range of actors, has continued since then. Two organisations were founded in 1989 by non-state actors on opposite sides of the climate policy debate. These were the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), which was established by a range of US business interests, and Climate Action Network (CAN) established by a range of environmental and scientific non-governmental organisations. The thesis documents, analyses and compares how each organisation was formed, organised and developed. It reviews how GCC and CAN enabled more effective national and transnational advocacy and how they fostered opposing policy coalitions on climate policy. The respective approaches are assessed, evaluated and contrasted as each sought to gain support for their opposing policy positions in the global climate change policy process. The research uses a neo-Gramscian theoretical perspective and develops and applies an analytical framework focused on policy coalitions of state and non-state actors to investigate the role that non-state actors played in the global climate policy process. GCC and CAN played major roles within opposing policy coalitions that became particularly important in shaping the outcome of the global and national climate policy processes. The thesis focuses on the role of GCC and CAN and their associated policy coalitions in influencing the framing, developing, implementation and review of global climate policy. It examines the global climate change policy process through this analytical lens of contestation between policy coalitions from the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988 to the first Meeting of the Parties of the ratified Kyoto Protocol in 2005. The thesis assesses the analytical framework and concludes by identifying critical issues that the current global public policy processes have encountered in developing and implementing effective global climate change public policy.

It is more than 20 years since 1985, when world climate and atmospheric scientists first issued an authoritative warning of the danger of global warming. In 1988, scientists, environmentalists and politicians from 48 countries endorsed the Toronto Declaration to address global warming that called for a twenty percent worldwide reduction in CO emissions by the year 2005 leading to an eventual fifty percent reduction. Contestation and collaboration in the global climate change public policy process, involving a wide range of actors, has continued since then. Two organisations were founded in 1989 by non-state actors on opposite sides of the climate policy debate. These were the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), which was established by a range of US business interests, and Climate Action Network (CAN) established by a range of environmental and scientific non-governmental organisations. The thesis documents, analyses and compares how each organisation was formed, organised and developed. It reviews how GCC and CAN enabled more effective national and transnational advocacy and how they fostered opposing policy coalitions on climate policy. The respective approaches are assessed, evaluated and contrasted as each sought to gain support for their opposing policy positions in the global climate change policy process. The research uses a neo-Gramscian theoretical perspective and develops and applies an analytical framework focused on policy coalitions of state and non-state actors to investigate the role that non-state actors played in the global climate policy process. GCC and CAN played major roles within opposing policy coalitions that became particularly important in shaping the outcome of the global and national climate policy processes. The thesis focuses on the role of GCC and CAN and their associated policy coalitions in influencing the framing, developing, implementation and review of global climate policy. It examines the global climate change policy process through this analytical lens of contestation between policy coalitions from the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988 to the first Meeting of the Parties of the ratified Kyoto Protocol in 2005. The thesis assesses the analytical framework and concludes by identifying critical issues that the current global public policy processes have encountered in developing and implementing effective global climate change public policy.

The continuously increasing energy intensity internationally is recognised as one of the greatest dangers the human race is facing nowadays with regards to future climate change and its detrimental consequences. Improving the intensity of energy consumption is an important step towards decreasing greenhouse gas emissions originating from fossil fuel-based electricity generation and consumption. As a result of this, South Africa took the bold step in 2010 to commit itself to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in taking all the necessary actions to decrease the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 34% to below the “business-as-usual” scenario by 2020 (Republic of South Africa, 2010). In order to do so, the country has to substantially reduce its energy consumption. This should be done without affecting the economic output; however, major energy consumers might prefer to decrease their output in order to comply with the rules focusing on the reduction of energy use. In South Africa, harmful environmental effects are created mainly from the electricity consumption’s unprecedented rise. The bulk of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions (more than 60%) originate from the electricity generation sector which is heavily dependent on coal-fired power stations. The purpose of this study is to promote a benchmark-and-trade system to improve electricity efficiency in South Africa with the ultimate objective to improve the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The uniqueness of this study is two-fold. On the one side, South African policy-makers have rarely discussed or proposed the implementation of a cap-and- trade system. On the other side, the same mechanism has never been proposed regarding electricity efficiency. In order to do so, it is first required to acquire an in-depth knowledge of the electricity consumption and efficiency of the South African economy in its entirety and on a sectoral level. The key findings of the empirical analysis are as follows: A decreasing effect of electricity prices to electricity consumption existed during the period 1980 to 2005, contrary to the increasing effect of total output to electricity consumption. Also, the results indicated that the higher the prices, the higher the price sensitivity of consumers to changes in prices (price elasticity) and vice versa. The relationship between electricity consumption and electricity prices differ among various sectors. The findings of the exercise point towards ambiguous results and even lack of behavioural response towards price changes in all but the industrial sector, where electricity consumption increased with price decreases. On the other side, economic output affected the electricity consumption of two sectors (industrial and commercial) presenting high and statistically significant coefficients. Based on a decomposition exercise, the change in production was the main factor that increased electricity consumption, while efficiency improvement was a driver in the decrease of electricity consumption. In the sectoral analysis, increases in production were part of the rising electricity usage for all the sectors with ‘iron and steel’, ‘transport’ and ‘non-ferrous metals’ being the main contributors to the effect. On the decreasing side of consumption, only five out of fourteen sectors were influenced by efficiency improvements. The country’s electricity intensity more than doubled from 1990 to 2007 and the country’s weighted growth of intensity was higher than the majority of the OECD countries by a considerable margin. Also, nine of the thirteen South African sectors were substantially more intensive than their OECD counterparts. Although the picture presented is rather dismal, there is scope for improvement. This study proposes a sectoral benchmark-and-trade system. This system aspires to steadily improve the participants’ efficiency performance by awarding the successful participants with monetary incentives through trading with the less successful ones. The benchmark is chosen to be subject to the average of OECD members for each sector. Depending on the sectors’ performance compared with the standard chosen, they will be awarded credits or allowances to sell if they do better than the benchmark. If they are worse-off, they will have to buy credits in the market created. The price per credit will be determined by the interaction of demand and supply in the market. The findings of a comparison with a carbon tax system show that the proposed system benefits the majority of the sectors and gives them better incentives to change their behaviour and production methods to more efficient ones. The system also fulfils the desired characteristics of a benchmark-and-trade system: certainty of environmental performance; business certainty; flexibility; administrative ease and transparency. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Economics / unrestricted

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the process of the development of climate change regime within the context of international environmental politics. In this context, this thesis aims to scrutinize how principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures concerning climate change regime have been created during the course of the climate change cooperation. To this end, having started with the explanation of the emergence of environmental issues as a topic of international politics, the thesis focuses on the general assessment of climate change in terms of science and environmental politics. Then, international climate change negotiations together with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol that constitute the basis for climate change regime are studied in this thesis. Finally, the thesis will elaborate on the positions and policies of the key players in relation to climate change for the purpose of clarifying their roles in the formation of climate change regime. This thesis concludes cooperation on climate change constitutes an example of a regime established within the scope of international environmental politics.

The thesis International Climate Change Law presents international legislation in the area of climate protection. Specifically, it focuses on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and proposed legal aspects of the new agreement, which is to arise from the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties in Paris. In its introduction the thesis outlines the scientific background of the climate change and political and technical approaches to its solution. Then, it gives an overview of the development of the international law in this area, including its political context. The following chapters analyse key legal documents highlighting their objective, principles, commitments, and tools. The last chapter sums ups and briefly analyses the most important aspects of the proposed legislation.

Climate change poses an unprecedented risk to global human security and future generations. Yet actions to mitigate or adapt to the changing climate system vary greatly among countries and their constituencies. Despite mounting evidence detailing the economic, social, and ecological risks of climate change, many scholars agree that the greatest threats associated with climate change involve delaying or ignoring necessary action. Using theorizing of “risk society” from Ulrich Beck and others, this thesis examines how countries, environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and business interests construct the risk of climate change and how their respective discourses conflict in international environmental negotiations. This research uses computer-assisted qualitative data analysis to explore statements submitted by each of these constituencies to the sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010. Analysis of these texts identifies climate change discourse as crisis or opportunity, in addition to discourses of development, environmentalism, and rights or responsibilities to provide us a better understanding of how we perceive and respond to ecological risk.

Masters in Science / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional & Community Planning / Stephanie A. Rolley / This case study considers the lessons of Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT initiative for future climate change policy and international conservation and development efforts. A comprehensive post-cancellation history of the initiative and background information regarding key domestic and international actors and institutions is presented in the Literature Review. Documents identified from LexisNexis and Google searches are analyzed to identify seven narratives of the initiative’s failure, which provide a basis for the suggestion of lessons. Questions regarding supply-side climate policy opportunities and challenges are explored. The initiative’s political mismanagement, design omissions and insufficient domestic political efforts, and a lack of contribution incentives are identified as the key causes of failure. The author concludes that the initiative’s supply-side model of shared sacrifices has the potential to align developed and developing country needs in support of greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals while addressing the difficulties posed by an emergent political economy of developing world resource extractivism in Ecuador and elsewhere. Future research regarding supply-side climate policies is suggested.