Barry Barton and Jennifer Campion
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198822080
- eISBN:
- 9780191861161
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198822080.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
Climate change is a particularly difficult policy problem, being long term and multifaceted. This chapter explores the proposition that well-crafted laws make it easier to make climate change policy ...
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Climate change is a particularly difficult policy problem, being long term and multifaceted. This chapter explores the proposition that well-crafted laws make it easier to make climate change policy that is coordinated, systematic, durable, and likely to encourage suitable energy innovation. Without dictating content, it identifies five elements for such legislation: greenhouse gas targets that have legal significance; instruments such as carbon budgets that impel early action towards long-term targets; requirements to identify the policies and measures that will reach those targets; requirements for decision makers in different sectors to pursue climate change targets; and rules for the information base. It concludes that laws reflecting these elements can improve the process of climate change policy making.Less
Climate change is a particularly difficult policy problem, being long term and multifaceted. This chapter explores the proposition that well-crafted laws make it easier to make climate change policy that is coordinated, systematic, durable, and likely to encourage suitable energy innovation. Without dictating content, it identifies five elements for such legislation: greenhouse gas targets that have legal significance; instruments such as carbon budgets that impel early action towards long-term targets; requirements to identify the policies and measures that will reach those targets; requirements for decision makers in different sectors to pursue climate change targets; and rules for the information base. It concludes that laws reflecting these elements can improve the process of climate change policy making.
Henrik Selin and Stacy D. VanDeveer (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262012997
- eISBN:
- 9780262259170
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262012997.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
North American policy responses to global climate change are complex and sometimes contradictory, and reach across multiple levels of government. For example, the U.S. federal government rejected the ...
More
North American policy responses to global climate change are complex and sometimes contradictory, and reach across multiple levels of government. For example, the U.S. federal government rejected the Kyoto Protocol and mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) restrictions, but California developed some of the world's most comprehensive climate change law and regulation; Canada's federal government ratified the Kyoto Protocol, but Canadian GHG emissions increased even faster than those of the United States; and Mexico's state-owned oil company addressed climate change issues in the 1990s, in stark contrast to leading U.S. and Canadian energy firms. This book examines and compares political action for climate change across North America, at levels ranging from continental to municipal, in locations ranging from Mexico to Toronto to Portland, Maine. It investigates new or emerging institutions, policies, and practices in North American climate governance; the roles played by public, private, and civil society actors; the diffusion of policy across different jurisdictions; and the effectiveness of multilevel North American climate change governance. The book finds that although national climate policies vary widely, the complexities and divergences are even greater at the subnational level. Policy initiatives are developed separately in states, provinces, cities, large corporations, NAFTA bodies, universities, non-governmental organizations, and private firms, and this lack of coordination limits the effectiveness of multilevel climate change governance. In North America, unlike much of Europe, climate change governance has been largely bottom-up rather than top-down.Less
North American policy responses to global climate change are complex and sometimes contradictory, and reach across multiple levels of government. For example, the U.S. federal government rejected the Kyoto Protocol and mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) restrictions, but California developed some of the world's most comprehensive climate change law and regulation; Canada's federal government ratified the Kyoto Protocol, but Canadian GHG emissions increased even faster than those of the United States; and Mexico's state-owned oil company addressed climate change issues in the 1990s, in stark contrast to leading U.S. and Canadian energy firms. This book examines and compares political action for climate change across North America, at levels ranging from continental to municipal, in locations ranging from Mexico to Toronto to Portland, Maine. It investigates new or emerging institutions, policies, and practices in North American climate governance; the roles played by public, private, and civil society actors; the diffusion of policy across different jurisdictions; and the effectiveness of multilevel North American climate change governance. The book finds that although national climate policies vary widely, the complexities and divergences are even greater at the subnational level. Policy initiatives are developed separately in states, provinces, cities, large corporations, NAFTA bodies, universities, non-governmental organizations, and private firms, and this lack of coordination limits the effectiveness of multilevel climate change governance. In North America, unlike much of Europe, climate change governance has been largely bottom-up rather than top-down.
