3.1.3 Actors, institutions, and scales of action

At this early stage of governance efforts related to ESTPs, there is not yet an established set of governance actors and institutions with explicit mandates or roles.

Given that many ESTPs are a consequence of climate change, it might seem obvious to address this set of challenges in the existing governance institutions for climate change. In line with this rationale, most of the scholarship on climate tipping points so far treats them as a single, global-scale issue that should be added to the agenda of the UNFCCC. However, a more nuanced perspective is needed that accounts for the complex existing climate change governance institutions at multiple scales, (the diversity of ESTPs with different drivers and impacts at multiple scales, and the corresponding need for a multi-scale, polycentric governance approach. The international regime for the governance of climate change is not the only one with a mandate that is relevant for ESTPs; other multilateral institutions could play an important role, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Arctic Council, the Antarctic Treaty, the recent High Seas Treaty, and the UN Environment Programme. More generally, different kinds of multilateral and international institutions can be distinguished:

  • General bodies and specialised agencies of the United Nations (UN) system (global scale).
  • International organisations based on treaties like the UNFCCC or the CBD.
  • Regional bodies that can be treaty-based (e.g. Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, ACTO) or serve the purpose of political cooperation (e.g. Arctic Council).

Each kind has different characteristics and corresponding strengths. For example, treaty-based organisations have relatively rigid mandates formulated in an international treaty, while political cooperation platforms have more flexibility in adjusting their scope and agendas.

Here, we focus on the climate change regime before briefly discussing other institutional settings where tipping points could be addressed. This discussion seeks to open a debate about the need for novel governance institutions (and actors) that operate at the scale of a specific tipping element.

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