Connecting the local and the global: do they talk but not reach?

Abstract

This research seeks to contribute to the debate on Global Environmental Governance through the case of Small Island Developing States. It is said that Global Environmental Governance creates the opportunity for a variety of actors to participate because the environmental crisis affects everyone on this planet. This argumentation hides two assumptions, namely that everyone on the planet is affected equally and that everyone has the same opportunity to participate in governing the problem. However, as this study will show, there are barriers inherent to the way the crisis has been governed that prevent parts of the world from participating equally, such as the authority on scientific knowledge. Moreover, as the focus on the Pacific Islands will demonstrate, the climate crisis is experienced in very different ways that have led to different perceptions of what is happening and what should be done. By not taking these various perceptions into account, Global Environmental Governance cannot be seen as truly global. At the same time, Pacific Islanders have managed to make themselves heard on the international stage and through storytelling they have influenced the social reality of the global leaders and thereby contributing to a different course of governance.