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FIIA Climate Day 2024: UN Climate Negotiations

SEMINAR · 23.10.2024 13:00 - 15:00

FIIA CLIMATE DAY 2024

UN Climate Negotiations: catalyst, orchestrator, or empty institution?

More than 30 years of international climate negotiations have not led to decline in global greenhouse gas emissions, nor have they kept the year 2024 from breaking new temperature and extreme weather records around the world. There is a sense of growing frustration among policy makers, citizens and academics alike. In response, the study of global environmental politics has brought to the forefront new critical concepts, such as empty institutions and performative governance. Both suggest that neither faulty design nor inefficient implementation are to blame for the lack of progress. States may deliberately create institutions that are unable to produce policy output. They may not be effective in solving the problem, but in the meantime, highly effective in performing action. Are we currently witnessing this phenomenon in the UN climate negotiations? If so, what is the way forward?

You can register for the event by sending email to events@fiia.fi.

Programme:

Introduction:
Antto Vihma, Research Professor, FIIA

Keynote: “Empty Institutions in Global Environmental Politics”:
Radoslav Dimitrov, Professor, Simon Fraser University (SFU)

Panel Discussion:
Marjo Nummelin, Head of Delegation to the UNFCCC, Finland
Oras Tynkkynen, Member of Parliament, former climate advisor to the PM
Radoslav Dimitrov, Professor, SFU

Chair:
Antto Vihma, Research Professor, FIIA

Speakers

Keynote: “Empty Institutions in Global Environmental Politics”

Radoslav Dimitrov

Professor, Simon Fraser University

Radoslav Dimitrov is a Professor at the Simon Fraser University. His academic expertise is on climate change negotiations, UN diplomacy, international institutions and global environmental politics. He participated in UN conferences for 20 years, represented the European Union in international climate change negotiations, and helped negotiate the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The body of his work documents the history of climate negotiations from behind closed doors and explores the politics of policymaking.

Based on participatory observation of international diplomacy, he introduced two concepts to global governance scholarship: empty institutions and non-regimes. The theoretical aspects of his research pertain to the role of institutions, effective negotiating strategies, argumentation and persuasion, and science and environmental policy.

Panel Discussion:

Marjo Nummelin

Head of Delegation to the UNFCCC, Finland

Marjo Nummelin is the Head of Delegation to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), Finland. She has worked at the Ministry of the Environment since 1996 in international and EU environmental and climate policy positions. Nummelin has also worked in the European Commission in Brussels in the Directorate-General Environment (2003-2007) and in the Representation of Finland to the EU in Brussels (2011-2016).

Oras Tynkkynen

Member of Parliament, former climate advisor to the PM

Oras Tynkkynen is a Member of Parliament (The Greens). He is also a partner and chairman of the board of Tyrsky Consulting, which provides expert services on climate and sustainability questions. In addition, he is a city councillor in Tampere. He has worked as a climate advisor to the PM during 2007-2011. He has served as a Member of Parliament also during 2004-2015.

Introduction and chair

Antto Vihma

Research Professor, FIIA

Antto Vihma works as a Research Professor at FIIA. He is the PI in an Academy of Finland funded project TRANSCLIM (2020–2024), which studies transparency in global climate governance. His research has centered on climate politics, policy analysis, and political theory. He has approached climate change in a multidisciplinary way, combining the research traditions of International Relations (IR) and international law. In addition, Vihma has engaged in case studies, including several in the Global South. The results have been published in leading journals such as International Affairs, Geopolitics, and Global Environmental Politics. In 2012-2016, he was writer/editor for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (IISD).

Vihma has also co-authored a monograph on post-truth politics (Totuuden jälkeen, in Finnish), which was shortlisted for the Kanava prize in 2018. His latest monograph on the politics of nostalgia (Nostalgia: Teoria ja käytäntö, in Finnish), was awarded the State Award for Public Information in 2022.