Specialization:
International climate politics, global environmental governance, sustainable development, political economy, international organizations and governance
Education:
- 1988: Ph.D. in international relations and comparative politics, University of Zurich
- 1983: Masters degree in Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara
- 1979: Bachelors degrees equivalent history and sociology, University of Basel.
Awards: 1988/89: Swiss National Science Foundation grant for post-doctoral research at Stanford University.
Bio:
Raymond Clémençon has worked on international environmental policy issues since 1989 first as a government representative and later researcher, instructor and policy consultant. He is a senior continuing lecturer in the Global Studies Department and the Sociology Department at UCSB and has taught graduate courses in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and the Political Science Department. He served as Graduate Director in the Global Studies Department from 2013-2015.
From 2003 until 2023 he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Environment and Development an interdisciplinary and international journal established in 1992 and published by SAGE Publications.
Policy research and teaching interests: international and comparative climate politics, sustainable development, political economy, international organizations and global governance (UN, EU, World Bank) international environmental institutions, agreements and negotiations, development financing, and comparative environmental politics in Europe and the US.
University service: Graduate Program Director in the Global Studies Department from 2012-2015.
Prior teaching experience: Prior to joining UCSB in the fall of 2008, Raymond Clémençon taught at the University of California in San Diego at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IRPS), the Environmental Studies Program and the Political Science Department.
Prior professional experience: From 1989 to 1994, Clémençon was Section Head at the International Affairs Division of the Swiss Environment Ministry and one of the negotiators on the Climate Convention, the Rio Conference on Environment and Development, and the establishment of the Global Environment Facility, GEF, a multilateral environmental financing mechanism associated with the World Bank, UNDP and UNEP.
Past consulting: Raymond Clémençon has served as a policy consultant for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in Washington DC, the World Bank, the "International Task Force on Global Public Goods," and the Swiss government. He was a member of the evaluation team conducting the Second Performance Assessment of the GEF in 1997, and advisor to the GEF secretariat during the 5th GEF replenishment negotiations in 2009 and the Swiss government on the establishment of the Green Climate Fund, in 2011 - 2012.
Research:
Projects:
Publications:
2023. 30 Years of International Climate Negotiations: Are They Still our Best Hope? June 2023. Journal of Environment and Development. Vol. 32, 2.
2021. Is sustainable development bad for global biodiversity conservation? Global Sustainability, Cambridge University Press. https://www.doi.org/10.1017/sus.2021.14
2020. The Global Environment Facility. In: Jean-Frédéric Morin and Amandine Orsini, eds. 2nd ed., Essential Concepts of Global Environmental Governance. Routledge. Taylor and Francis Group.
2018. ““Zweckoptimismus” and the Paris Process Will Not Save the World from Climate Catastrophe.” Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management — Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 198–201.
2016. "Sustainable Development, Climate Politics and EU-Leadership: A Historical-Comparative Analysis." European Journal of Sustainable Development (2016), 5, 1, 125-144
2016. "The Two Sides of the Paris Climate Agreement: Dismal Failure or Historic Breakthrough?" Journal for Environment and Development, Vol. 25, No. 1: 4-22.
2012. "Welcome to the Anthropocene: Rio+20 and the Meaning of Sustainable Development." Journal for Environment and Development, Vol. 21, No. 3: 311-338.
2012. "From Rio 1992 to Rio 2012 and Beyond: Revisiting the Role of Trade Rules and Financial Transfers for Sustainable Development." Journal of Environment & Development, March 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1: 21: 5-14.
2010. "Climate Negotiations after Copenhagen.." In: Constance Lever-Tracy and Barrie Pittock, Climate Change and Society: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, Francis & Taylor.
2010. " Pushing past Neo-Liberalism: Rethinking Global Climate Negotiations.." In: Constance Lever-Tracy and Barrie Pittock, Climate Change and Society: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, Francis & Taylor.
2009. "Innovative Financing Mechanisms for the GEF." First Meeting for the Fifth Replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund, March 17-18, 2009, Paris. GEF/R.5/8, February 27, 2009.
2008. "The Bali Road Map. A First Step on the Difficult Journey to a Post-Kyoto Protocol Agreement." Journal for Environment and Development Vol. 17, No. 1:70-94.
2007. "Funding for the Global Environment Facility Continues to Decline." Journal for Environment and Development Vol. 16, No. 1:3-7.
2006. "What Future for the Global Environment Facility." Journal for Environment and Development Vol. 15, No. 1:50-74.
2006. "Capacity Building for Global Environmental Public Goods Provision." International Task Force on Global Public Goods (ITFGPG). Stockholm. (Full Task Force Report)
2006. "Cost-benefit Analysis of Global Commons Recommendations. An analysis of costs and benefits of climate change and biodiversity conservation policies." Stockholm: ITFGPG.
2006. "Resource Needs and Availability for Protecting Global Environmental Public Goods." Stockholm: ITFGPG.
Book
1990. Perceptions and Interests: Developing Countries and the International Economic System. Bern: Peter Lang Press.
Courses:
GLOB 172: International Organizations and Global Governance.
Globalization and recent de-globalization trends, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and increasing tensions between the West and China are reshaping opportunity structures and spheres of influence for nation states as well as for international and domestic actors. International governmental organizations (IOs) and more recently international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have emerged as important players on many issues. The objective of the course is to convey both a theoretical but also practical real world understanding of the evolution of international organizations and of the functional and normative role they are playing in global governance, particularly in a time of profound challenges to multilateralism and escalating global environmental crisis.
GLOB 161: International Environmental Politics and Policy
This course addresses the global environmental crisis and the international political response to it. The evolution of international agreements, negotiations and institutions related to global climate change, loss of biodiversity, depletion of the ozone layer and the search for sustainable development will be central topics. Positions of key countries and non-governmental actors will be analyzed before the background of shifting social and political opportunity structures, economic interests, technological innovation and globalization trends.
SOC105 E: Environmental Sociology
The course introduces students to the history of environmentalism and society-environment relationship in the context of a rapidly changing natural world and the unfolding climate crisis. Key social science concepts, theories and analytical methods will be applied to the understanding of critical contemporary environmental problems and individual, societal and political responses to them. How can we meet the challenges of the future more sustainably and equitably?
SOC134: Green Movements and Green Parties
The course considers the evolution and influence of the environmental movement in a comparative cross-national context. How have environmental organizations and green parties influenced societal response and policy formulation on critical environmental issues including nature conservation, air and water pollution, climate change, energy, nuclear accidents, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), and sustainable development in different developed and developing countries, with a focus on the U.S. and Europe? What lessons can be learned from past social movement activism for solving today’s critical environmental problems.