ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a background to global climate governance and explore specific mechanisms, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol (KP). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had the goal of legitimizing global climate governance by presenting assessments from three working groups that addressed the science, the socio-economic and vulnerability-adaptation issues, and the socio-economic and mitigation strategies. The general argument of the KP failure is threefold. First, the KP rests on the idealistic assumption that national policies would have to adapt to global needs. Second, the Protocol is a mechanism with an inadequate design based on a national approach, when in reality the implementation costs are localized regionally. The second explanation deals with the emergence of free-riders. Third, the KP has no obligatory mechanisms for implementation; it is based on voluntary instruments, targets and commitments.
