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The global response to climate change has reached a critical juncture. Since the 1992 signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the nations of the world have attempted to address climate change through large-scale multilateral treaty-making. These efforts have been heroic, but disappointing. As evidence for the quickening pace of climate change mounts, the treaty-making process has sputtered, and many are now skeptical about the prospect of an effective global response. Yet global treaty-making is not the only way that climate change can be addressed or, indeed, is being addressed. In the last decade myriad initiatives have emerged across the globe independently from, or only loosely connected to, the'official'UN-sponsored negotiations and treaties. In the face of stalemate in the formal negotiations, the world is experimenting with alternate means of responding to climate change. Climate Governance at the Crossroads chronicles these innovations--how cities, provinces and states, citizen groups, and corporations around the globe are addressing the causes and symptoms of global warming. The center of gravity in the global response to climate change is shifting from the multilateral treaty-making process to the diverse activities found beyond the negotiating halls. These innovations are pushing the envelope of climate action and demonstrating what is possible, and they provide hope that the world will respond effectively to the climate crisis. In introducing climate governance'experiments'and examining the development and functioning of this new world of climate policy-making, this book provides an exciting new perspective on the politics of climate change and the means to understand and influence how the global response to climate change will unfold in the coming years.

Matthew J. Hoffmann explores the fundamental question of who should participate in the global response to ozone depletion and climate change. Blending social constructivist theory with insights from the study of complex adaptive systems, Hoffmann develops a unique framework for understanding the emergence and evolution of participation norms, which define the appropriate global response and shape how states have perceived the problems, defined their interests and strategies, and pursued governance. The explanation is rigorously developed through an innovative combination of formal analysis and in-depth empirical case studies. Agent-based computer simulation modeling is employed to explore essential norm dynamics, analysis that is complemented and extended by process-tracing case studies that examine governance activities from 1986 through 2003. The result provides the understanding necessary for improving global responses to environmental problems.