Introduction

This chapter uses the lens of accountability to analyse the strategies of a range of civil society groups in their engagement with key actors in the global regime on climate change. It seeks to account for the degree of effectiveness of these strategies in constructing and enforcing mechanisms of accountability in global climate politics. The point of departure is that accountability is constituted by two key elements: answerability and enforceability (Schedler et al. 1999; Newell and Wheeler 2006). The chapter shows that while civil society actors have proven adept at demanding answerability from pivotal actors in the global governance of climate change, enforceability has been weak.

The analysis draws on insights gained by the author during fifteen years of following and engaging with different aspects of the climate regime: as an academic; as an activist; as a former employee of an NGO, Climate Network Europe; and as a contributor to policy work undertaken by United Nations agencies (UNDP and the Earth Council) as well as governments (such as those of the UK, Finland and Sweden). The chapter therefore combines personal reflections, interview material, and academic as well as policy and activist literatures.

Climate change has clearly become a matter of high politics. Once considered a marginal issue, a robust political and scientific consensus now prevails that human interference with the climate system presents an unprecedented challenge and that far-reaching global measures are urgently required to tackle it.