Extract

As a 'super wicked' problem with a causal chain marked by complexity and uncertainty, it is impossible to govern all facets of climate change through a single international regime. To be effective, the international climate regime will need to take into account the potential of a variety of international regimes to either mitigate or exacerbate the problem, while at the same time also considering its own impacts on other regimes. Global climate governance is thus inevitably fragmented. The consequences of such fragmentation, however, are not necessarily duplication of work, regulatory chaos and uncertainty, or the prioritization of one policy field over another, as has been feared by international lawyers. Crucially, I have argued in this book that the implications of the fragmentation of global climate governance ultimately depend on how regime interactions are managed. In this chapter, I offer concluding observations that seek to explore the middle ground between the views of interaction management optimists, such as Sebastian Oberthür and Olav Schram Stokke, and sceptics like Martti Koskenniemi, who hold opposing views on whether interaction management can work in the first place.