Why can’t the traditional “top-down” governance model work efficiently to fight against Climate Changes… and what can civilian society really do for it
Written by Ronan Dantec, Councilman of Nantes (France), Senator of Loire-Atlantique and Climate CGLU spokesperson
“Multi-player” governance : the only governance model possible to answer the climate challenge
With its nature and magnitude, the fight against climate change is one of the greatest challenges the international community faces. To reach the objectives set in the Paris Agreements, it is now essential to go from intentions to concrete actions.
The governance question thus becomes a fundamental one. To be efficient, the fight against climate change needs involvement from all people involved in governance. The traditional governance approach utilized for other challenges — the “top-down” type –simply does not work efficiently enough for something as all-encompassing as climate change.
Even if states are forced to work through their typical legal processes to reduce greenhouse effects on the ground or in the industrial sector, we can see that the real fight, and the real changes, will come from the civilian society on a daily basis.
I am strongly convinced that a multi-player governance is the only possible one. Using both states and civilian society actors on the ground, this type of governance allows us to mix and match public and vertical politics with horizontal industry dynamics at a local and international level.
The Climate Chance Summit : a big step to answer this challenge
There have been great strides in acknowledging the role of non-government actors in the fight against climate change. But said actors need to keep gathering and coordinating by adopting collective tools that will help them raise their voices so that the states may hear them (and benefit from them).
It is not always easy. There are also divergent interests between civilian society actors, and gathering everybody around common goals implies numerous discussions and arguments. This is why the Climate Chance Summit was created: to give civilians a chance to create a dialogue about climate change between COP events. Climate Chance is the first summit for non-governmental actors to become involved in fighting against climate change. The Summit aims to be an important operational route point in the climate agenda.
The summit will also be an occasion to draw attention to actions around the world, deepen conversations on difficulties, innovations and successes, and find common ground among everyone involved. Coming to an understanding on every important topic is a key challenge for Climate Chance. The event must send common messages to all governments, send a common declaration of agreement, and to prepare us all to reevaluate state contributions as early as 2018.
A new coalition dedicated to multi-player governance
The governance topic is at the heart of climate challenges. To go further and faster, we have to promote partnerships between every involved actor in all countries and territories. Thus, a coalition dedicated to the development of such multi-player governances will start at Climate Chance, along with existing coalitions such as those for transportation, energy, water, etc.
Driven by European players with experience in this kind of governance, and gathering members from the entire world — including Canada and Africa — Climate Chance has the objective of promoting multi-player governance as a structure for action, thinking of the fight against climate change as the global issue that it is.
About Climate Chance
Climate Chance is the international event where non-governmental actors, involved in the fight against climate change, get together. The first edition will be held in Nantes, France from September 26 to 28, 2016, at Centre des Congrès de Nantes.
More information on climatechance2016.com, contact@climatechance2016.com and on Twitter @ClimateChance via the hashtag #ClimateChance.
