Developments in national climate change mitigation legislation and strategy

Abstract

This paper presents results of a survey of national legislation and strategies to mitigate climate change from 2007 to 2012 covering almost all United Nations member states. This dataset is distinguished from the existing literature in its breadth of coverage, its focus on national policies rather than international pledges, and on the use of objective metrics rather than normative criteria. To accomplish this, the data is also limited to national climate legislation and strategies and does not cover sub-national or sectoral measures. Climate legislation and strategies are important because they can: enhance incentives for climate mitigation, provide mechanisms for mainstreaming; and provide a focal point for actors.Three broad findings emerge. First, there has been a substantial increase in climate legislation and strategies between 2007 and 2012: 67% of global GHG emissions are now under national climate legislation or strategy compared to 45% in 2007. Second, there are substantial regional effects to the patterns, with most increases in non-Annex 1 countries, particularly in Asia and Latin America. Third, many more countries have adopted climate strategies than have adopted climate legislation between 2007 and 2012. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research. Policy RelevanceThis paper tracks the increase in climate legislation and strategy. This spread suggest that, at the national level, there is some movement in re-shaping climate governance despite the relatively slow pace of global negotiations, although the exact implications of this spread requires further research on stringency of actions and their implementation. Asia and Latin America represent the biggest improvements, while OECD countries, which start from a high base, remain relatively stagnant. Implications of regional patterns are further refined by an analysis by emissions, which shows that some areas of low levels of legislation and strategy, are also areas of relatively low emissions. A broad trend toward an emphasis on strategies rather than legislation, with the significant exception of China, calls for enhanced research into the practical impact of national non-binding climate strategies versus binding legislation on countries actual emissions over time.

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“…In line with the findings from Dubash et al [37], regarding the importance of creating new laws on climate change for the public sector, stricter policies for using government buildings more efficiently need to be developed as well. In addition to the potential technical solutions like better maintenance programs, energy use patterns by the employees must be considered in order to have a fully integrated approach for achieving lower environmental impacts through energy efficiency initiatives while also operative costs are reduced.…”

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“…The role of the UNFCCC, through deliberately providing legitimation and signification, could and should be to conduct this orchestra. 1 The group of like-minded developing countries includes China, India, and other Asian countries such as Pakistan and the Philippines, countries in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries such as Saudi Arabia, and some Latin American countries such as Bolivia and Venezuela 2 Dubash et al (2013) focus on policies at the national level that are explicitly linked to climate change mitigation objectives. Their survey includes climate change legislation as well as climate strategies or coordinating bodies that have been established for the dedicated purpose.…”

“…While it is difficult to unequivocally attribute these developments to the UNFCCC process, it is very likely that international climate policy and the prominence of the UNFCCC process contributed to this development (Dubash et al, 2013;Fankhauser, Gennaioli and Collins, 2015) '[C]limate change has attracted much interest [...]; so much in fact, that climate change has been accused of being somehow discursively hegemonic by subsuming, absorbing or crowding out work on other environmental issues' (Bulkeley et al, 2014, p. 9).…”

“…While so far insufficient to achieve the below 2°C target, the UNFCCC has nonetheless induced a large variety of mitigation activities around the globe (Dubash et al, 2013;Fankhauser, Gennaioli and Collins, 2015).…”

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“…We are much more interested in the empirical question of whether the nation state has been and in future is likely to be a productive site of policy innovation, and if so why. Many national policies predate the UNFCCC and are an important and longstanding feature of both the old and the new climate governance (Dubash et al 2013, Townshend et al 2013. To our minds, a more direct focus on the nation state adds a number of important aspects to political and academic debates concerning the future governance of climate change.…”