Institutional Analysis of the Global Climate Change Regime: Literature Review of International Climate Negotiations

Climate change is the biggest challenge for humanity and international climate negotiations have been put in place to deal with the challenge. However, the international climate negotiations have not been able to achieve the global binding climate agreement to limit the warming under 2 degrees C during this century. Previously the literature has covered the impacts, costs, benefits and the efficiency in terms of greenhouse gas emission reduction, sustainable development, climate justice and technology transfer. However less focus has been put on the institutional aspect of international climate negotiations. The aim of the paper is to describe the outcome of the international climate negotiations by institutional analysis and development framework. We conducted a literature review of the international climate negotiations including unilateralism, multilateralism, minilateralism and carbon markets. The results assist to clarify the role of climate governance approaches in tackling climate change.