How do Actors Assert Authority over Issues in Transnational Climate Governance? A Case Study on the European Union Emission Trading System – The World’s Largest Carbon Market and the Cornerstone of the EU’s Policy to Combat Climate Change

Abstract

[Aim] The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the International Political Economy (IPE) literature with new context-specific knowledge by exploring how actors assert authority over issues in transnational climate governance. This research question is operationalized with a case on the European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS).
[Theoretical Framework] The theoretical framework is informed by three complementary theoretical perspectives. These are: “Transnational Legal Orders”, “Interactionist Social Ecology Theory of Global Lawmaking” and “Issue Control in Transnational Professional and Organizational Networks”. We integrate these three theoretical perspectives to build a theorized causal mechanism to explore how actors engage in processes of strategic social interaction by forming issue-ecologies and strategically position themselves in the social space of them to assert authority over TLOs.
[Research Design] The research design is inspired by the “Research Onion”. This “Onion” has six layers, with each layer illustrating a stage in our research process. The six layers are: research philosophy, research approach, methodological choice, research strategy, time horizon, and techniques and procedures for data collection and data analysis.
[Empirical Findings] Empirical evidence for our causal mechanism has been found. We found that professional actors (the cause) have formed an issue-ecology around the EU ETS TLO and that some of the professionals have strategically positioned themselves in this issue-ecology to assert authority over the EU ETS TLO (the outcome).
[Conclusion] It can be concluded that professional actors have been able to circumvent and manipulate organizational actors in their battles for authority over the EU ETS TLO.