EU's External Climate Governance: The Role of Decentralised Cooperation and Multi-level Governance in Climate Adaptation.

Abstract

The most recent decade has witnessed more frequent and severe impacts of climate change. These take various forms and affect people differently, but injustice and inequities baked into the global system are once again at the core of the challenge. The most vulnerable communities, which have usually contributed the very least to climate change and are beyond EU’s borders, are the most affected ones and the least prepared to act. The European Union’s climate governance should therefore comprehend territories beyond its administrative boundaries in order to leave no one behind. Through different instruments the EU is increasingly strengthening its position as a global climate leader, but soft tools of governance and the involvement of a wide variety of actors and levels of governance are necessary to effectively respond to this quest. The analysis of the synergies of MLG and decentralised cooperation is done to gain an overall understanding of the potential benefits of these approaches. The central objective of this research is thus to discern the advantages of applying these two key approaches to EU’s external climate action, to see whether they might lead to reinforce EU leadership through reinforcing adaptation standards and coherence. Since a literature review was not enough due to the lack of data on the specific framework proposed, nine interviews with experts from relevant disciplines were carried out and their content analysed. The findings further point to the benefits of this approach although some challenges remain ahead. Multi-level and multi-actor governance are known to be applied for domestic challenges, but EU’s external governance might as well benefit from such lenses. While complexity will remain a characteristic of global governance structures, EU’s external climate (adaptation) governance would be strengthened if decentralised cooperation was applied as a complementary soft governance tool.