The Role of Alliances in International Climate Policy after Paris

The High Ambition Coalition, comprising over 90 countries, which came to public attention shortly before the end of the Paris climate conference, made a substantial contribution to the successful adoption of the Paris Agreement. Besides its astute conduct of the negotiations and skilfully stage-managed media performance the Alliance owed its success above all to its broad composition, made up of industrialised, emerging and developing countries. Thus alliance formation once again proved to be an effective instrument for achieving climate-policy aims in difficult negotiating situations.
While the climate-policy focus up until Paris was mainly on the negotiation process, the focus post-Paris has shifted to implementation of the Agreement. A number of new challenges are tied in with this, coping with which will require the participation of a broad spectrum of actors from politics, business, finance and civil society. Alliances will also have to become more diversified.
The future belongs not only to the existing alliances, whose further development remains open, but above all to multi-stakeholder alliances of various kinds. As pioneers of change they can make a decisive contribution to advancing the transformation process at national, regional and international levels, to the extent they are able to mobilise the necessary popular and political support.