Headline: The Multi-level System of Global Climate Governance - the Model and its Current State

Multi-level global governance was introduced at the United Nations summit in Rio in 1992 as a new model to achieve a broad global mobilization of different actors in sustainable development. This model has been extended to climate governance. It has become a global system with its own inherent logic, dynamics and stabilization mechanisms. This article deals with the systemic dimension (the architecture) of global multi-level climate governance across levels and sectors. It refers to the model and its practical implementation at different levels. The text poses four hypotheses: (1) the global multi-level system of climate governance can be regarded as a structure which offers opportunities for ambitious innovation-based climate strategies; (2) each level of the global system has its own specific responsibilities, challenges, opportunities and mechanisms for lesson-drawing; (3) the main lesson to be learned is to make use of the co-benefits characteristic to climate mitigation; and (4) the system's multi-sectoral and multi-actor structure provides additional opportunities to address such co-benefits and to mobilize different interests in the pursuit of climate policy objectives. After outlining these hypotheses in more detail, the article will then conclude with a set of policy recommendations. © 2017 The Authors. Environmental Policy and Governance published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd