REDD+ in Indonesia (Polycentric Regime)

Essay assignment:

Critically evaluate the direction in which climate governance is developing, and discuss what action is required for climate governance to move forward.
What is an essay:
An essay means that you develop an argument. Usually this argument is already introduced in the introduction of the essay and then further developed in the remaining part of the essay.
Developing an argument means that you should move beyond simply summarizing academic resources and debates on climate governance. Instead you develop a thesis that you defend and reflect on in your essay. For instance, you take a stance in an academic debate in climate governance and argue for your position by means of evidence and by providing arguments in favour and by refuting counter arguments. Alternatively, you may want to make a more theoretical argument – e.g., argue that a certain theory lacks attention into some key explanatory factor and then substantiate that argument in the essay. Or, you may want to write an empirically-driven essay arguing how the available theories fail to explain a certain case. More example arguments can be found on the next page. In general, critical reflection and creativity is very much encouraged.

Please note that developing an argument is something different than having an opinion. An argument is supported by theory and empirical evidence, whilst that is not essential for someone having a personal opinion. In this essay, you are expected to develop an argument. For more information on essay writing see: http://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/essay-structure

The essay should include:
1. A critical evaluation of the direction in which climate governance is heading. For instance, you analyse the increasing role of city networks in climate governance and discuss what this implies for fragmentation of climate governance. Or you examine whether an international carbon tax could be a useful policy instrument to be considered in climate governance.
2. Acriticalreflectionofthemannerinwhichclimategovernancecanmoveforward. For instance, if you examined fragmentation in climate governance, you may argue in favour or against more top-down coordination from the UNFCCC.

Your essay needs to have a thematic focus:
It is highly recommended to focus on a topic or theme that is covered in one the lectures or tutorials of this course, to ensure you can obtain proper feedback from fellow students and the instructor.
You for instance can focus on:

 Climate change negotiations (e.g. power dynamics in the UNFCCC1 / insights from Game theory2)
 UNFCCC-related mechanisms (such as Loss and Damage)
 The implications of climate change: Climate change-induced migration and/or
climate security
 Institutional fragmentation in global climate governance
 Alternative or new forms of climate governance (such as the role of business/ city
governments/ local city governance/ citizen initiatives, etc)
 Alternative policy instruments for mitigation in the EU (for example to bridge the
gap in marginal abatement costs between the ETS and non-ETS sectors).