Steering and Influence in Transnational Climate Governance: NonstateEngagement in Solar Geoengineering Research

JoshuaB. Horton and Barbara Koremenos

Global Environmental Politics, 2020, vol. 20, issue 3, 93-111

Abstract: Theorists of transnational climate governance (TCG) seek to account for theincreasing involvement of nonstate and substate actors in global climate policy.While transnational actors have been present in the emerging field of solargeoengineering—a novel technology intended to reflect a fraction ofsunlight back to space to reduce climate impacts—many of their mostsignificant activities, including knowledge dissemination, scientific capacitybuilding, and conventional lobbying, are not captured by the TCG framework.Insofar as TCG is identified with transnational governance and transnationalgovernance is important to reducing climate risks, an incomplete TCG frameworkis problematic for effective policy making. We attribute this shortcoming on thepart of TCG to its exclusive focus on steering and corollary exclusion ofinfluence as a critical component of governance. Exercising influence, forexample, through inside and outside lobbying, is an important part oftransnational governance—it complements direct governing with indirectefforts to inform, persuade, pressure, or otherwise influence both governor andgoverned. Based on an empirical analysis of solar geoengineering researchgovernance and a theoretical consideration of alternative literatures, includingresearch on interest groups and nonstate advocacy, we call for a broader theoryof transnational governance that integrates steering and influence in a way thataccounts for the full array of nonstate and substate engagements beyond thestate.

Date: 2020
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