How Governments and International Organizations Shape Global Policy on Climate Change and Climate Change Education

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the influence of governments and international organisations (IOs) in global climate governance and climate change education (CCE) networks. Over the past two decades, the complexity of climate governance networks has increased significantly due to the growing involvement of non-state actors (NSAs) including NGOs, businesses, and research institutions. This shift has led to a growing scholarly interest in the role of NSAs in global climate governance. Scholars have therefore argued that there has been a shift in authority from traditional actors such as nation states to NSAs. However, the complex and non-hierarchical structure of global climate governance has made it difficult to systematically analyse the influence of different actors. The dissertation aims to contribute to this field by addressing two core research questions: First, how influential are governments and international organisations in global climate governance and climate change education networks? And second, how do governments and international organisations exert influence within these governance networks? To do this, it applies a combination of quantitative network analysis techniques based on data from three sources: a large-N survey of UNFCCC negotiation participants, Twitter communication during UNFCCC negotiations, and government policy documents.

This dissertation is based on four studies. The findings show that governments and IOs are still key actors in global climate governance in both online communication networks and cooperation networks. However, a more nuanced picture emerges when comparing the overall climate governance network with the CCE-specific network. For governments specifically, the results show that they are central actors in both online communication networks and cooperation networks in the overall climate governance network. In the sub-network of CCE, however, governments are largely absent from rankings of top actors in online communication networks. When focusing only on governments and how they refer to education in their NDCs, the findings show that governments predominantly from the Global South are the ones referring to education – forming the largest discourse coalition around 'education as a means of adaptation'.

For IOs, a similar picture can be drawn for the overall climate governance network. IOs are extremely central in both online and cooperation networks. In the latter, information was identified as a key source of their authority. IOs and their representatives were also found to be the most central actors in the CCE-specific network. UNESCO and the UNFCCC secretariat, which drive the CCE agenda at the international level, are particularly central. This may be due to their bridging activities between the climate and education communities and their orchestrating role for CCE.

The findings of this dissertation provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the influence of governments and IOs in climate change governance, including climate change education. They are relevant to scholars of global education policy, international relations, public administration, and global environmental governance.