From Copenhagen to Legoland?

Date: 18 Oct 2010
Speaker(s): Robert Falkner
Venue: London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

Part of the Climate Change and Environment Autumn 2010 seminar series

In his seminar, Robert argued that we needed a major reassessment of the current approach to building a climate regime was needed, which was focused on the idea of a comprehensive, universal and legally binding treaty that prescribes, in a top-down fashion, generally applicable policies based on previously agreed principles.

In his seminar, Robert argued that we needed a major reassessment of the current approach to building a climate regime was needed, which was focused on the idea of a comprehensive, universal and legally binding treaty that prescribes, in a top-down fashion, generally applicable policies based on previously agreed principles.

From a review of the history of the ‘global deal’ strategy from Rio (1992) to Kyoto (1997) and beyond, Robert concluded that this approach had been producing diminishing returns for some time, and that it was now time to consider an alternative path – if not goal – for climate policy.

An alternative that is most likely to move the world closer towards a working international climate regime is a ‘building blocks’ approach, which develops different elements of climate governance in an incremental fashion and embeds them in an international political framework.

This alternative is already emergent in international politics.