This paper analyzes and compares multi-level global climate governance in India and Indonesia by combining theoretical approaches of international relations and comparative politics. It sheds light on the research question of how the global climate regime complex has been triggering climate governance activities in the Global South. Therefore, it focuses on two main aspects: 1) How does the global climate regime complex provoke a reconfiguration of authority within nation-states? 2) How does the global climate regime complex initiate resultant policy innovations in these nation-states?
It thus addresses two existing research gaps. Firstly, the effects of global climate governance arrangements on domestic climate governance developments have not yet been sufficiently scrutinized. While the number of global climate governance arrangements has been exploding during the last two decades leading to a vast global climate regime complex, scholars have focused primarily on their emergence, accountability, and horizontal interplay with the UNFCCC. However, only little research has been conducted with regard to the vertical interplay between the global climate regime complex and the nation-states. Such a multi-level governance inquiry seems especially promising with regard to the emergent domestic climate governance systems in the Global South.
Secondly, several scholars of climate and environmental politics have not only observed a lack of multi-level governance research but also of in-depth comparative analyzes of domestic climate politics. Most academic contributors tend to use single case studies or descriptions and focus primarily on industrialized countries. In consequence, systematic and comparative knowledge about the politics of mitigation actions in the Global South is still largely missing.
Given these shortcomings, this paper develops a theoretical framework comprising elements from global governance and multi-level governance research as well as from comparative politics on interests, institutions and ideas. For answering the research question, it then centers on the workings of global climate governance arrangements which are either intergovernmentally agreed within the UNFCCC as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) or are operating outside the UNFCCC as for instance Transnational City Networks (TCN) like C40 and ICLEI.
In order to analyze the effects of these global climate governance arrangements on nation-states in the Global South, the developed theoretical framework is then applied to the two case studies India and Indonesia. Research on climate politics in India and Indonesia is particularly relevant as both are among the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world. It is therefore of special interest to scrutinize the effects of global climate governance arrangements on these two nation-states during the last decade.
In both case studies, process tracing permits to answer how the global climate regime complex has been triggering domestic climate governance activities. Moreover, by using the method of structured-focused comparison, additional knowledge is gained which exceeds the insights of a single case, offering the possibility to reveal mechanisms which may be of value for the larger group of emerging economies. The paper concludes by answering the research question and by illustrating future research areas.
