By Juan Carlos Pereira (CFC-GS/UFPA)
International cooperation on climate issues has become necessary given the global nature of climate change, whose effects cannot be addressed in isolation by individual states, as they result from interconnected political and economic choices in the international system (World Bank, 2010). Based on this observation, an international climate regime has been consolidated, structured mainly by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, instruments that establish commitments aimed at both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the environmental impacts already underway (Souza et al., 2017).
Human activities, especially the intensive use of fossil fuels and the advance of deforestation, have contributed to projections of an increase in global average temperature above 2°C, a scenario capable of causing profound changes in strategic ecosystems, such as the Amazon, in addition to the accelerated retreat of glaciers and the intensification of ocean acidification, threatening the planet’s biodiversity and environmental stability (Souza et al., 2017). Given this situation, the climate regime is guided by the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, which recognizes the need for collective action but takes into account historical inequalities in emissions and the different economic and institutional capacities of states (Yanin & Deplege, 2004).
The consolidation of effective responses to climate change depends on cooperation mechanisms that go beyond agreements limited to the exclusive action of governments, especially given the unequal distribution of responsibilities and environmental impacts among countries. In this scenario, global environmental governance plays a central role in promoting coordination between state and non-state actors, who develop collective norms and solutions based on dialogue, consensus, and the support of permanent institutions, creating an expanded decision-making model compatible with the urgency of the climate crisis (Camargo, 2015). In an international system marked by interdependence, this cooperation is no longer merely desirable but has become an essential condition for achieving the objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to stabilize the global climate system, as well as for managing conflicts and responding in a coordinated manner to environmental risks (Rei et al., 2017).
The analysis of this arrangement is part of the debate on international regimes, which seeks to understand how norms and institutions influence the behavior of states beyond formal organizations. According to Haas (1993), regimes should be understood as social constructs created to organize values, guide actions, and provide predictability to interactions between different actors in the international system. In the context of climate change, this regime has the characteristics of a Regime Complex, as it operates through multiple interconnected institutions, without the existence of a central authority or a rigid hierarchy, constituting an intermediate governance structure (Keohane; Victor, 2011). The position occupied by states in this context is directly related to the degree of interdependence between them, with those whose actions have the most significant impact on the international system as a whole having the greatest capacity for influence (Silveira, 2015; Keohane; Victor, 2011). Furthermore, the formation of these regimes cannot be explained exclusively by strategic interests, but also by shared beliefs, the circulation of information, and historical conditions, which, based on formal and informal interactions, build common expectations and favor selective cooperative arrangements, in which the presence of actors who benefit without contributing effectively, the so-called free-riders, is sought to be avoided (Keohane; Victor, 2011).
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