School of Geography and the Environment

Climate Change Agreements and Non-Nation State Actors

Over the last 5 years there has been a huge increase in the involvement of non-nation state actors making commitments to tackle climate change. These commitments to reduce emissions come from a variety of sources: from corporations and carbon offset companies, to cities, households and individuals. One of the most significant pledges came from the State of California in 2006 setting a target to reduce emissions throughout the state to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

Research at the ECI, funded through the Tyndall Centre, investigates the theoretical rationale for these non-nation state actors making commitments to reduce emissions; reviews the types of commitments they make; and performs quantitative analysis of the effect these emissions reductions are actually making on carbon dioxide levels globally.

Initial findings suggest that actions by non-nation state actors do not occur completely independently from the state, but are framed by government and in-turn also influence how government responds to the problem.

Attempts to quantify the cumulative contribution of these reductions have been constrained by the quality of data available. It has been found very difficult to add up emissions reductions due to the differing baselines used for recording data (not always knowing when the commitment is due by; how or where it will be made; or how it will be recorded when it has been achieved). It is also a challenge to separate individual commitments from those required by the state under the Kyoto Protocol, as this requires cuts to be made outside of industrialised countries – requiring further information which is not always disclosed. Overall the research suggests that (excluding some of the larger commitments like that made by California) the commitments are generally small compared to the cuts that scientists say are required. They have also been found to be very difficult to disentangle from those cuts being made by and within the nation states.

Read publications output from this research.