The UNFCCC Regime

The fragmented nature of interstate regulatory activity on climate change inevitably casts some doubt upon the continued significance of the UN’s Climate Convention. It aspires to play a central coordinating role but is confronted by a growing array of sometimes unrelated, and usually unregulated, transnational and private governance activities (IPCC, 2014a). In the light of these circumstances, the devotion of an entire chapter to the intricacies of the UNFCCC requires some justification. Analysts have disagreed on the centrality of the Convention. For Keohane and Victor (2010) it remains at the core of the climate regime complex, but for Abbott (2012) it is one among many relevant intergovernmental, transnational and civil society entities. Where the UNFCCC sits in relation to present and future climate governance is a vitally important and unresolved question, but is not one posed in this book. Instead the focus is upon international climate politics, where attention remains fixed upon the Convention. This is despite those attempts, discussed in the previous chapter, to avoid, or even subvert, the UNFCCC. Most of these have been orchestrated by developed world governments. But the overwhelming majority of state Parties value the UN climate regime, because it is open to their influence and because they have development needs that may potentially be met within its expanding activities.