Book Description

Since the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, States Parties to the international climate regime, in parallel to their emissions reductions objectives, have committed to take action to promote and cooperate in the development and transfer of technologies that control, reduce or prevent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. The Paris Agreement, which entered into force on November 4th, 2016, reaffirms this commitment. The specific manner through which States Parties to the Paris Agreement are to translate these commitments into action is however still being implemented. Indeed, significant developments in the governance structure for climate technology development and transfer (TD&T) are being implemented in order to further improve its functioning as part of the Paris Agreement's bottom-up approach. An up-to-date understanding of these legal and policy tools is necessary to enable the different actors in the TD&T process, notably those from the private sector, to participate in this cooperative action to their full potential. In this context, the thesis addresses the following two main research questions. First, in the wake of the Paris Agreement, to what extent can TD&T contribute to the overall objective of the UNFCCC regime? Second, what are the legal issues surrounding the effective implementation of climate TD&T? By analyzing the legal issues linked to the implementation of TD&T in the evolving international climate governance landscape, the main objective of the research project is to determine to what extent improved understanding of UNFCCC law could contribute to effective implementation of climate TD&T. The research project posits that effective TD&T is an essential component to the achievement Paris Agreement's overall mitigation goal. Its importance resides in its ability to contribute to developing country States Parties' sustainable socioeconomic 3 development, as well as to encourage greater participation of non-state actors, such as those from the private sector. In order to answer its two research questions, the thesis first articulates its conceptualization of the Paris Agreement structure and of the role of law within it. It then focuses on TD&T to illustrate some issues at play within what it argues is an emergent polycentric governance system. It first does so by focusing on TD&T within the UNFCCC regime, before looking outwards to its interaction with other international legal and governance regimes. The analysis carried out in the thesis leads it to conclude that the normative basis for an improved contribution of TD&T to the UNFCCC's overall objective is present in the Paris Agreement. Several questions however remain regarding the successful implementation of this normative basis.