A Case Study for a successful international climate alliance

Climate change and the resulting climate crisis we are facing shifted more and more into the focus of the international discourse in the past few years and affects our everyday life increasingly.

We do research on this topic, because climate change endangers the future of our planet and our societies and changes it drastically, if we do not change our behavior regarding the environment. Many voices are raised in the global North and demand more climate protection. However, the loudest voices are those that are acutely affected by climate change, the global South. The effects which can be felt today already destroy their livelihood and force them to act. In order to achieve this, they use institutions, in which they are formally equal to the global North, e. g. the UN. This does not work if the states act individually. Alliances are formed by states who are equally affected by the effects of climate change in order to assume a joint responsibility for a inhabitable planet and to fight for their livelihood.

One of the biggest of these alliances is the Alliance of Small Island States, in short AOSIS. This is a merger of 39 states, which will have to face similar effects of climate change due to their topographic position. This cooperation was established during the second world climate conference in Geneva in 1990. Most of the co-founders and current member states are classified as Small Island Developing States, in short SIDS, by the UN. They founded this alliance in order to be able to claim responsibility for the protection of the habitats and climate. By acting together in the frame of AOSIS, they represent about a fifth of the UN member states and have more influence in negotiations.

For example, AOSIS has been significantly involved in the UN decision to establish the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC. Its member states meet annually for a climate conference, the COP. The Kyoto-Protocol and the Paris Climate Agreement have been passed during these COPs inter alia. Furthermore, AOSIS continuously works for the fight against climate change and for the special protection of the during these conferences. The most important strategy of AOSIS in the fight against climate change is negotiation and its argumentation on the basis of scientific facts. However, how can such negotiations be successful in a plural international discourse, in which not everyone attributes the same value to science.

In our research project, we intend to take a closer look at the role science plays in international climate policy and how AOSIS could use it as a basis for its successes so far.

As climate change cannot be stopped by individual states, but preconditions the cooperation of all states, it is important to learn from AOSIS. Especially because the global North is the principal generator of climate change and has to act as a part of a global community of responsibility in order to secure the cultural heritage of mankind.

Student research group:

• Johanna Baues
• Finn Henrik Wiese

Mentors:

• Prof. Dr. Daniel Geiger
• Prof. Dr. Karsten Nowrot
• Prof. Dr. Alexander Proelß
• Prof.  Dr. Franziska Müller
• Prof. Dr. Grischa Perino