UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Institutionalizing global climate governance: Expertise, sovereignty, and scalar mismatch

Identification

Public canonical key

radar:r-d5bbd6c44c84335fa80bc4b7a050e100

Authors

Benjamin Kaplan Weinger

Reported year

2025

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-13T10:55:52.239743+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-13T10:55:52.239743+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

University of California, Los Angeles

Reported affiliation countries

US

Documentary abstract — original language

This article addresses the fundamental tension in global climate governance: the disjuncture between the planetary scale of the climate crisis, as framed by scientific knowledge, and the state-centric approach of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It analyzes the historical-institutional dynamics that have shaped the UNFCCC, drawing on archival materials from the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) and prior meetings to reveal how diverse authorities, forms of knowledge, and norms coalesced to privilege state sovereignty. This early institutionalization embedded enduring asymmetries of power and responsibility, particularly concerning the distribution of burdens and benefits between the Global North and South. These asymmetries continue to hinder the pursuit of climate justice, understood here not as a neutral principle but as a normative framework grounded in historical responsibility, distributive equity, and the rights of affected communities. These structural inequalities limit the potential for more transformative governance that challenges the existing uneven geopolitical order. The article shows how framing climate change as a matter to be addressed by sovereign states, while politically expedient, can sideline alternative paradigms rooted in historical responsibility, legal accountability, climate debt, and the regulation of non-state actors. This analysis contributes to contemporary debates on transforming global climate governance to enable more ecologically just and effective responses.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

https://openalex.org/W4410292095

DOI

10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101236

Documentary context

Documentary family

article

Source-reported types

article

Publishers

Elsevier BV

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1

• Document · https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101236

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

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