By Bryant King
This summer I am interning with the U.S. Climate Alliance, which is housed at the U.N. Foundation in Washington. The U.S. Climate Alliance is a bipartisan coalition of 16 states and Puerto Rico that is committed to fulfilling its share of U.S. commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement, despite the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from said agreement in June 2017. It works to coordinate climate-focused policy among Alliance Members and conducts outreach to ensure that the United States remains, to the greatest extent possible, a leader in confronting climate change.
Why did you choose this particular internship?
I chose this internship because it has given me substantive policy experience working on a non-traditional security issue and because I value the U.N. Foundation’s somewhat unique approach to addressing global challenges. The U.N. Foundation works off the premise that states must draw on the expertise and resources of sub-national and non-traditional actors (e.g. multinational corporations and faith-based groups) to effectively address the great challenges of our time. The acceptance of sub-national and non-traditional actors as serving a vital and complementary role to the work of states is critical to addressing non-traditional security issues like climate change in our increasingly complex global system of the 21st century (a system a former professor of mine writes as being characterized by a state of “mosaic multilateralism”). Here we find a “both/and” approach that proves an effective counter to those who misconstrue the principle of subsidiarity and those who overemphasize the role of the state in providing for the common good.
What was the biggest lesson you took away from this experience?
On the other side of the coin, considering my previous answer, the biggest lesson I will take away from this experience is that non-traditional security issues like climate change cannot be adequately addressed without the support of the United States (and state actors more generally). While sub-national and non-traditional actors play an undeniably important role in complementing the work of state actors and multilateral organizations, they cannot serve as a substitute for the resources and power that these traditional actors can bring to the table. Despite the best efforts of the U.S. Climate Alliance, the United States will not meet its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target under the Paris Climate Agreement. Continued abdication of U.S. leadership in response to global challenges like climate change leaves our country and world inherently less secure.
What are two interesting things about the U.N. Foundation/U.S. Climate Alliance that the average person doesn’t know?
One interesting thing about the U.S. Climate Alliance is that Alliance Members represent over 40% of the U.S. population and $9 trillion in GDP (46% of total U.S. GDP), which would make the Alliance the world’s third largest economy. In addition, while Alliance Members have reduced their total greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 5% more than non-Alliance Members in the last decade, keeping them on track to meet their share of the U.S. target under the Paris Agreement, they have also seen their per capita economic output expand twice as fast as non-Alliance Members over the same period of time. An interesting thing about the U.N. Foundation is that it was established in 1998, as a means of managing Ted Turner’s unprecedented $1 billion donation to the United Nations.
Why did you choose this particular internship?
I chose this internship because it has given me substantive policy experience working on a non-traditional security issue and because I value the U.N. Foundation’s somewhat unique approach to addressing global challenges. The U.N. Foundation works off the premise that states must draw on the expertise and resources of sub-national and non-traditional actors (e.g. multinational corporations and faith-based groups) to effectively address the great challenges of our time. The acceptance of sub-national and non-traditional actors as serving a vital and complementary role to the work of states is critical to addressing non-traditional security issues like climate change in our increasingly complex global system of the 21st century (a system a former professor of mine writes as being characterized by a state of “mosaic multilateralism”). Here we find a “both/and” approach that proves an effective counter to those who misconstrue the principle of subsidiarity and those who overemphasize the role of the state in providing for the common good.
What was the biggest lesson you took away from this experience?
On the other side of the coin, considering my previous answer, the biggest lesson I will take away from this experience is that non-traditional security issues like climate change cannot be adequately addressed without the support of the United States (and state actors more generally). While sub-national and non-traditional actors play an undeniably important role in complementing the work of state actors and multilateral organizations, they cannot serve as a substitute for the resources and power that these traditional actors can bring to the table. Despite the best efforts of the U.S. Climate Alliance, the United States will not meet its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target under the Paris Climate Agreement. Continued abdication of U.S. leadership in response to global challenges like climate change leaves our country and world inherently less secure.
What are two interesting things about the U.N. Foundation/U.S. Climate Alliance that the average person doesn’t know?
One interesting thing about the U.S. Climate Alliance is that Alliance Members represent over 40% of the U.S. population and $9 trillion in GDP (46% of total U.S. GDP), which would make the Alliance the world’s third largest economy. In addition, while Alliance Members have reduced their total greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 5% more than non-Alliance Members in the last decade, keeping them on track to meet their share of the U.S. target under the Paris Agreement, they have also seen their per capita economic output expand twice as fast as non-Alliance Members over the same period of time. An interesting thing about the U.N. Foundation is that it was established in 1998, as a means of managing Ted Turner’s unprecedented $1 billion donation to the United Nations.