Regional Climate Futures

International tensions imperil concerted climate action at a moment when it has never been more urgent. Climate experts and financial institutions alike now forecast warming well above 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, with devastating consequences that will fall most heavily on world’s poorest people. And the sheer size of annual COP meetings now carries significant environmental costs, to the extent that they may have become counterproductive.

This signals an urgent need for innovative approaches to international cooperation. Against this backdrop, “minilateral” or “plurilateral” approaches – where small groups of countries and/or multi-sectoral coalitions form alliances to address common priorities – are gaining prominence. Our hypothesis is that coalitions at the regional scale have the capacity to offer effective solutions by adapting global goals and priorities to shared cultural and contexts.