The "World System" Of the Paris Agreement: Exploring The Construction, Dissemination, And Implementation of Climate Knowledge Through Redd

Bixler, R. Patrick

Publication

The "World System" Of the Paris Agreement: Exploring The Construction, Dissemination, And Implementation of Climate Knowledge Through Redd

Bixler, R. Patrick

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most pressing social and environmental issues of the 21st century, and will require innovative thinking to understand its complexity. The Paris Agreement, negotiated at the 2015 21st Conference of Parties, marked a monumental international agreement toward collective action on climate change. Through world systems theory and global value chain analysis, this paper explores how climate knowledge is co-constructed, differentially distributed, and consistently negotiated in the frontiers among diverse knowledge systems. These theoretical frameworks allow us to explore how power is manifest in knowledge systems. I argue that this theoretical approach may more broadly acknowledge the role that organizations play when navigating the complex field of climate change. World system theory and global value chains is used to understand the multi-scalar nature of Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) programs. In doing so, a new framework is proposed for grasping the complex nature of climate knowledge, governance, and policy implementation