Climate Cooperation Research Articles

International Climate Cooperation and the Watershed of Policy Streams

This article presents a watershed model of the policy process to examine comparative policy issue contexts associated with global warming and climatic change (GWCC). The watershed model extends the metaphor of policy streams advanced by Lasswell, Kingdon, Howlett et al., and others to characterize the conditions that precede, and sometimes preclude, the effective workings of the policy process. The model considers the confluence of factors that contribute to the formation of policy knots that precede stages of policy agenda setting and policy formation by exploring public trust and public attention as the headwaters that feed the five streams of the policy process. After distinguishing three hydrological zones, the article identifies several critical junctures in the watershed model of the policy process that explore areas where policy “knots” precede intractable conflict.

Measuring creativity: role of service quality management, knowledge sharing and social interaction

In contrast to the enormous literature on the relationships between creativity and personal values, relatively few studies have addressed the question of the creativity–service quality link. The purpose of this study is to examine the antecedent factors of the motivation and cooperation climate of service quality and to consider the consequences of service quality on banking service employees’ creativity. Data were collected from 502 bank employees in China. The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) found multiple mediation roles in a cooperative climate and service quality management that characterise the relationship between employees’ motivation and creativity. In addition, the moderate roles of social interaction and knowledge sharing are also discovered. Several alternative models of the first and second factors of motivation and service quality management were examined to determine the robustness of the original proposed models.

Ценностно-смысловые приоритеты субъект-субъектного взаимодействия в высшей школе в ракурсе когнитивной парадигмы

The relevance of the article is due to the need to determine the role of the cognitive paradigm in increasing the effectiveness of subject-subject interaction in the educational process of higher education, this interaction contributing to the development of the educational process's subjects with axiological priorities. The authors solve the problem of revealing empathic reserves and mechanisms of interaction between a teacher and students that allow the educational process to be carried out in an atmosphere of comfort, trust, openness, which determines humanistic semantic formations and value-based transformations of the individual. In the article, on the basis of participation seen as the opposite of domination, coercion and authoritarianism, and as a reserve for creating a favorable psychological climate for cooperation, the authors compare the basic and advanced participatory skills of the teacher. The authors define the importance of the cognitive component of empathy as a connecting link in the development of value-based awareness, understanding and regulation of educational subjects' cognitions and emotions that affect the success of their interaction. Empathy is revealed as a form of rational-emotional-intuitive reflection of another person, which predicts one's behavior in subject-subject interaction. The authors define the position of the teacher in subject-subject interaction from the perspective of the cognitive paradigm, which, in the logic of empathic conditioning of this interaction, is transformed into the role of a guide. Such a position of the teacher is formed on the basis of the development of a step-by-step algorithm for the development of the teacher's emotional identification as a structural component of empathy. Experimental results of the study of empathic reserves and mechanisms of interaction between a teacher and students are presented on the basis of a survey of 48 second-year students of two groups (Gr.07-911 and Gr.07-911k) of the Chemical Education specialty, the Institute of Chemistry named after I.M. Butlerov of Kazan Federal University, and 41 people of two groups (Gr. 3A and Gr. 3B) in the Art of Ballet and Art of Dance specialties of the final year of the Kazan Choreographic School. The survey used the method of diagnosing the level of empathic abilities of V.V. Boyko. The selected diagnostics made it possible not only to obtain the qualitative characteristics of each channel of empathy of the students and their identification, but also, most importantly, to obtain personality-oriented information about the attitudes that promote or hinder empathy in subject-subject interaction for each surveyed student.

Domestic Courts as Guarantors of International Climate Cooperation: Insights from the German Constitutional Court’s Climate Decision

Domestic Courts as Guarantors of International Climate Cooperation: Insights from the German Constitutional Court’s Climate Decision

Lessons from the EU Effort Sharing Decision for Supranational Climate Cooperation: A Firm-Level Analysis

Lessons from the EU Effort Sharing Decision for Supranational Climate Cooperation: A Firm-Level Analysis

Климатическая политика администрации Байдена в отношении Китая: сторонники и оппоненты

The article is devoted to the analysis of the contemporary US-Chinese relations in the climate sphere and forecasting the prospects for their development in the near future. In the context of the evolution of the problem in the past, as well as taking into account the differences in approaches to the problem in the United States from the two leading parties and the most influential political and ideological groups, the authors investigate the causes of the aggravation of climate relations between Washington and Beijing. It is noted that having occupied the White House, the Democratic administration of J. Biden began to increase pressure on the Chinese government in order to force it to accelerate the passage of "green transit", i.e. the transition from the use of fossil fuels in the economy to renewable energy sources. It is assumed that such a strategy should slow down China's economic development, thus giving America time for internal reforms aimed at achieving its global "green" leadership, which, in turn, should ensure economic dominance in the post-crisis period. Tactically, the administration uses a "separate" methodology, i.e. declares the need to isolate from each other the climate and all other components of the Chinese policy of the United States. This approach is not supported by most political and ideological groups. Thus, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party insists on close climate cooperation with China, which implies a possibility of geopolitical concessions. Moderate Republicans ("realists") consider "constructive competition" with Beijing in the climate sphere possible. Conservatives are confident that China will not fulfill its promises, and therefore they advocate "climate realism", which means carrying out internal reforms in the United States only taking into account what has been done by other countries, primarily China. The neoconservative group demands to abandon climate pressure and rely on tough geopolitical steps against Beijing. It is concluded that disagreement within the ruling elite with Biden's Chinese policy will greatly complicate the approval of the climate reform program in Congress, therefore the "containment" of the PRC will be primarily economic and geopolitical in nature.

“Clubbing in the Club”: Could Climate-Related Trade Arrangements Set the Pace for Future Climate Cooperation?

The climate is changing, and so is climate diplomacy. Global treaties may be failing, while unilateral actions are proving to be contentious both within the climate and the trade regime. At the same time, countries need to be given the right incentives to participate in the fight against climate change and to start curbing their emissions substantially. The European Union's (EU) decision to introduce a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and the momentum around carbon pricing may be the perfect opportunity to revisit these ideas in the form of clubs. What if small groups of countries got together and set the pace for a new era in climate diplomacy? What if they relied on trade measures to do so? Clubs are not new in international law, let alone in international climate law. Compared to global approaches, they may avoid freeriding; compared to unilateral ones, they may reduce the risk of trade frictions. And not all major emitters need to participate right away. As few as two parties could start a climate club, a sort of club within the club, gradually catalyzing or influencing action on climate change. In this essay, we argue that climate clubs enable like-minded countries to assume more ambitious commitments and gradually pull in other countries with them.

AI for Global Climate Cooperation: Modeling Global Climate Negotiations, Agreements, and Long-Term Cooperation in RICE-N

AI for Global Climate Cooperation: Modeling Global Climate Negotiations, Agreements, and Long-Term Cooperation in RICE-N

CHINA PAKSTAN ECONOMIC CORRIDOR, REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEPENDENCY; IMPLICATION FOR REGIONAL PEACE AND STABILITY

The politics of the area have long been dominated by realist, nationalistic, weapons race, and security-focused South Asian politics, with limited room for liberalism and solutions to regional and domestic problems. However, because of its economic dependence and multilateralism, CPEC, as a component of BRI, provides a pathway for modernisation in the region. The growth and extension of CPEC may result in economic expansion, regional development, peace, and prosperity. Many people think that CPEC would just benefit Pakistan and China, but in reality, it will have a significant influence on the social, political, and economic landscapes of South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Openness and inclusivity are necessary for CPEC to be a source of peace, prosperity, and a tool for conflict resolution.
 It is up against a lot of obstacles and adversaries. Nevertheless, it has the ability to accomplish its goals and build a stable, integrated community in the area. Instead of just countries, regions will reap its advantages. Economic interdependence, free commerce, mutual reconciliation, and cooperation will lead to peace and stability.
 As a result, it is anticipated that as the CPEC project continues to succeed in connecting Central Asia, a new era of regional peace and stability would usher in an improved climate for cooperation and conflict resolution.

Building voluntary partnerships for climate action: An exploratory study from Iceland

The Paris Agreement called for voluntary cooperation between firms, NGOs, and the state, to meet global climate goals. This study examines the development of voluntary carbon projects (VCPs) in Iceland – a country aiming to be carbon neutral by 2040. There is little empirical evidence on what catalyzes voluntary and inter-organizational climate cooperation. To fill this gap, we use a mixed methods research design, surveying firms to understand their awareness and commitment to VCPs, and interviewing state and non-state actors involved in VCPs. In interviews, we tested a cooperation framework with six ‘levers’ to enable cooperation: a superordinate goal, group identity, trust, accountability, communication, and reward distribution . Individualist and collectivist cultural dynamics influence these mechanisms. Survey results showed a general awareness of and support for VCPs, but concerns around their robustness. In interviews, the six cooperation mechanisms offered structured pathways for enabling and strengthening VCPs. • Iceland aims to be carbon neutral through voluntary carbon projects (VCPs). • There is broad awareness of VCPs among firms, but concerns on their robustness. • A shared group identity focused on climate action, is critical for cooperation. • Group identity and trust are strengthened by face-to-face communication. • Explicit goals are foundational for group accountability and cooperation.

Making Industrial Policy Work for Decarbonization

AbstractIndustrial policy has begun to move into the center of debates on climate policy. This represents a shift away from climate policy as we know it—as classic environmental policy. Industrial policy and environmental policy differ in their policy goals, policy instruments, and distributional effects, one primarily concerned with economic development, the other with cutting greenhouse gas emissions. This raises questions about policy interactions between industrial and environmental policy in broader climate policy mixes and how these affect global decarbonization. This article identifies complementary and conflictual dynamics between industrial policy and environmental policy in both domestic and international climate politics. It shows how green industrial policy can advance climate goals and cooperation but can also present challenges to deepening climate cooperation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Developing an understanding of policy interactions is central to leveraging the potential of industrial policy to accelerate global decarbonization.

Might Cooperative Approaches Not Be So Cooperative? Exploring the Potential of Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement to Generate Legal Disputes

Abstract With Article 6.2, the Paris Agreement offers its parties the possibility to engage in cooperative approaches to import mitigation outcomes that have been generated on the territory of another party and use these international transferred mitigation outcomes (itmos) for compliance purposes. While this possibility seems to pave the way to more—and presumably new forms of—climate cooperation outside the UN climate regime, this paper asks whether Article 6.2 is also likely to spark disagreement among states. It is suggested that it bears as much a potential to generate cooperation as to generate conflict. To illustrate that point, the paper explains how Article 6.2 could lead to conflict between developed and developing states over the legality of unilateral restrictions on the admittance of itmos and discusses what such conflict may look like, as well as its possible legal and political implications.

Global roll-out of comprehensive policy measures may aid in bridging emissions gap

Closing the emissions gap between Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the global emissions levels needed to achieve the Paris Agreement’s climate goals will require a comprehensive package of policy measures. National and sectoral policies can help fill the gap, but success stories in one country cannot be automatically replicated in other countries. They need to be adapted to the local context. Here, we develop a new Bridge scenario based on nationally relevant, short-term measures informed by interactions with country experts. These good practice policies are rolled out globally between now and 2030 and combined with carbon pricing thereafter. We implement this scenario with an ensemble of global integrated assessment models. We show that the Bridge scenario closes two-thirds of the emissions gap between NDC and 2 °C scenarios by 2030 and enables a pathway in line with the 2 °C goal when combined with the necessary long-term changes, i.e. more comprehensive pricing measures after 2030. The Bridge scenario leads to a scale-up of renewable energy (reaching 52%–88% of global electricity supply by 2050), electrification of end-uses, efficiency improvements in energy demand sectors, and enhanced afforestation and reforestation. Our analysis suggests that early action via good-practice policies is less costly than a delay in global climate cooperation.

DEVELOPMENT OF LOW-CARBON POWER TECHNOLOGIES AND THE STABILITY OF INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE COOPERATION

This paper explores the effects of the technological development of key low-carbon power technologies (photovoltaic (PV), wind, and carbon capture and storage (CCS)) on the stability of global climate cooperation under several assumptions about climate-related damage. The methodology combines cooperative game theory with a global computable general equilibrium (CGE) model allowing us to endogenize testing of stability of the global coalition and to include macroeconomic effects. Global cooperation is found to be stable only under mean or pessimistic assumptions about the development of key low-carbon power technologies and when damage is severe. If the technological development is favorable or climate damage is not severe, the gains from global cooperation are not sufficient to compensate for mitigation costs, because a nonglobal coalition of willing countries can then achieve emission reductions close to the global optimum. Finally, our findings support establishing nonglobal ‘climate clubs’ to overcome the lack of global cooperation in international climate policy.

Why Climate? The Drivers of the European Union’s Climate Governance in its Post-Soviet East European Neighbors

ABSTRACT The European Union (EU) has positioned itself as a global climate leader. The EU’s engagement with external climate governance is most visible in the six post-Soviet states of Eastern Europe. This article asks what drives the EU’s engagement with climate governance in the region. To answer this question, I distinguish between three logics of external climate action: self-interest, functional, and civilizing. By analyzing climate cooperation between the EU and the six states, I demonstrate that a combination of all three logics explains the EU’s engagement in external climate governance, but that the functional logic is slightly more prominent than the other two.

How Does Group Climate Foster or Hinder Employee Voice? A Cross-Level Examination.

Although empirical evidence has accumulated showing that group climate has a significant impact on employee voice, knowledge about how different types of climates may influence voice is limited. Drawing upon the theory of planned behavior, we develop and test a model that explains whether and how the two group climates, cooperation and sanction, differentially predict employee promotive and prohibitive voice. We test the hypotheses using data collected from a sample of 274 full-time employees nested in 58 workgroups across two time periods. The empirical results show that group climate predicts employee voice in different ways: Group cooperation climate has a positive effect on both types of employee voice, whereas group sanction climate shows a negative effect on promotive voice. Individuals’ psychological capital is a cross-level mediator in the relationship between group climate and employee voice. Employees’ prevention focus negatively moderates the relationship between psychological capital and employee voice. These results highlight the important effect of group climate on employee voice in organization and calls on managers to create a favorable environment to increase employees’ psychological capital and voice behaviors.

Help your neighbor, help yourself: The drivers of European Union's climate cooperation in trans‐governmental networks with its neighbors

AbstractClimate change mitigation and adaptation are among the policy areas covered by the European Union (EU) in trans‐governmental cooperation with the neighboring countries. Although this cooperation is open to all European Neighborhood Policy countries and Russia, there is significant cross‐country variance. This article maps the EU's climate networks in the neighborhood and, building on time‐series cross‐sectional data analysis, explains the cross‐country differences. The study contributes to Europeanization and network governance literatures by demonstrating that the main driver of EU engagement in climate networks in the region is interdependencies stemming from geographic proximity. Meanwhile, state capacity is an important condition for establishing climate cooperation: climate cooperation develops more with closer neighbors that have stronger state capacity. Importantly, contrary to the logic of its international climate commitments, climate vulnerabilities do not define the extent of the EU's engagement in climate networks with its neighborhood.

Designing the Optimal International Climate Agreement with Variability in Commitments

AbstractWe analyze the design of an international climate agreement. In particular, we consider two goals of such an agreement: overcoming free-rider problems and adjusting for differences in mitigation costs between countries. Previous work suggests that it is difficult to achieve both of these goals at once under asymmetric information because countries free ride by exaggerating their abatement costs. We argue that independent information collection (investigations) by an international organization can alleviate this problem. In fact, though the best implementable climate agreement without investigations fails to adjust for individual differences even with significant enforcement power, a mechanism with investigations allows adjustment and can enable implementation of the socially optimal agreement. Furthermore, when the organization has significant enforcement power, the optimal agreement is achievable even with minimal investigative resources (and vice versa). The results suggest that discussions about institutions for climate cooperation should focus on information collection as well as enforcement.

Climate clubs: politically feasible and desirable?

ABSTRACT The idea of a stringent climate club, once the reserve of academic debates, is quickly gaining ground in international policy circles. This reflects dissatisfaction with the multilateral UNFCCC process, but also hope that a minilateral club could increase climate policy ambition, reinvigorate the Paris Agreement process, and make future emissions pledges stick. With the Biden Presidency renewing the US commitment toward climate action and the European Green Deal proposal for carbon border tariffs, some are advocating the creation of a transatlantic climate club. What could a club approach hope to achieve, and what do we know about its political feasibility and desirability? In this article, we seek conceptual clarification by establishing a typology of different club models; we inject a greater sense of political realism into current debates on the feasibility of these models; and we consider their legitimacy in the context of international climate cooperation. Key policy insights Knowledge gaps and confusion regarding the nature of climate clubs hold back debates about what intergovernmental clubs can contribute to international climate policy. Club design matters: existing club models vary in terms of the proposed size, purpose, operational principles, legal strength, and relationship to the UNFCCC. Clubs focused on normative commitments face low barriers to establishment. They lack legal strength but can help raise policy ambition. Clubs aimed at negotiating targets and measures can increase bargaining efficiency, but struggle to deal with equity and distributional conflicts. Clubs seeking to change incentives via club benefits and sanctions face the highest hurdles to implementation. Their promise to tackle free-riding remains untested and difficult to achieve. Climate clubs face an international legitimacy deficit. Any club proposal needs to consider how to add to, and not distract from, the multilateral climate regime.

The influences of cooperative climate, competitive climate and customer empowerment on service creativity

To extend the relationship between customer empowerment and creativity, this study explores the mediating effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (individual level). The study aims to clarify whether cooperative and competitive climates influence service creativity through intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (across level). A matching sample of 333 coaches and customers from 30 stores in the fitness industry was used to examine the study hypotheses by employing Mplus 8.3 statistical software. The results show that (1) customer empowerment and cooperative climate have significant positive effects on service creativity (that is, the service creativity of coaches); (2) the intrinsic motivation of coaches mediates the relationship between customer empowerment and service creativity; and (3) the intrinsic motivation of coaches mediates the relationship between cooperative climate and service creativity, but the mediating mechanism of extrinsic motivation does not exist in the relationship between competitive climate and service creativity.