Transnational climate actions have come to constitute a distinguishable sphere of climate governance. Reflecting on the Paris outcome, this article discusses the role of non‐State and subnational actors – especially on the road to the Paris climate change conference. It argues that the intergovernmental and transnational spheres of global climate governance could mutually reinforce each other by continuing mobilization efforts to engage non‐State actors and by harnessing greater ambition, both from State and non‐State actors. For such mutual reinforcement to take effect, however, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change should engage non‐State actors consistently and systematically. The article also argues that the Paris outcome and, above all, the building blocks that are part of the decision on enhancing pre‐2020 action, constitute the most comprehensive framework of non‐State engagement yet, offering a promising basis for mutual reinforcement of the intergovernmental and transnational spheres of global climate governance.

This article investigates potential trade-offs between the socioeconomic and environmental dimensions of development within the context of transnational business governance and sustainability standards, exemplified by smallholder certification in the palm oil sector as a means to improve both sustainability and the inclusion of small farmers in global value chains. This article finds that there are important trade-offs between environmental sustainability and inclusive development. First, there is a worry that the diffusion of standards that aim at enhancing environmental sustainability may undermine the socioeconomic situation of smallholders by excluding them from global value chains and from international markets that demand certified commodities. Second, while smallholder certification can generate socioeconomic benefits for farmers included in certification schemes, these potential benefits may have contradictory and undesired implications for environmental sustainability. The article analyses these trade-offs and discusses implications with a view to fostering the synergies between economic, environmental and social sustainability.

This article investigates the integration of smallholders into voluntary certification schemes, exemplified by smallholder certification under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Indonesia (RSPO). It identifies the main barriers to the adoption of standards by smallholders and the specific compliance challenge in the context of RSPO smallholder certification, thereby contributing to the growing literature on the effectiveness of voluntary sustainability standards. It discusses findings on smallholder certification, focusing on antecedent variables as potential adoption determinants at the level of smallholders, smallholder organization, and the institutional context. The empirical findings suggest that smallholders, and specifically independent smallholders, often lack both the information and the degree of organization that certification demands. The article also identifies the most important compliance challenges for independent smallholders in relation to land titles, seedlings, pesticide usage, fertilization, and documentation and outlines how smallholders can be supported so that they can be included in certification schemes.

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