13.4.4 Interactions between private, local and non-governmental initiatives and national/international efforts

The preceding sections have touched on a number of the interactions that take place between private, sub-national and non-governmental initiatives and national and international climate change efforts. As discussed, some of these efforts have been designed, at least in part, to influence the development of national programmes or the international climate regime. Other programmes have been designed to fill roles in these regimes that may be appropriate for private or non-governmental entities. Finally, other legal or programmatic initiatives have been launched because of the perceived inadequacy of national or international efforts.

One of the most important drivers of these interactions is the development of a global GHG emission trading market. Many of the standardization and certification efforts described above have been designed to build institutions for the emerging GHG market which in turn may also facilitate interactions between sub-national initiatives and national or international climate regimes. For example, the eight north-eastern and mid-Atlantic states in the US Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) cap and trade programme will allow the use of CDM credits and EU ETS allowances under certain circumstances (RGGI, 2005). Similarly, there has been an exploration of a possible linkage between the NSW Greenhouse Gas abatement scheme and the EU ETS and Kyoto mechanisms (Fowler, 2004; Betz and MacGill, 2005).

In addition to international carbon markets, there are other frameworks that facilitate interactions between private, sub-national, and non-governmental initiatives and national and international climate change efforts. For example, NGOs, private companies and governments have formed partnerships to help implement the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). These partnerships, known as ‘type II agreements’ are self-organized and are formed as voluntary cooperative initiatives and have the common goal of integrating the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. To date, more than 300 partnerships are registered. A significant number of these partnerships are climate change-related (see http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/partnerships/partnerships.htm).