National Climate Policy Research Articles

Role of local governments in EU member states’ climate policy and legislation

This article provides a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges that local governments have in achieving climate objectives, both within EU member states’ national climate policy and national climate law, and how this relates to the literature on multi-level governance. More specifically, the differences and similarities between the national climate plans and national climate legislation of four selected member states (Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and Spain) have been examined. The findings from this can be related to the literature on multi-level governance when it comes to opportunities and challenges regarding the role that local governments fulfill. On the one hand, local governments are often seen as potential key drivers that can successfully work together and whose involvement can lead to more effective climate governance. On the other hand, local governments are legally and financially dependent on higher levels of government in the implementation of their assigned climate-related tasks and responsibilities.

Scalar orientation of policies and technology legitimacy: The case of decarbonization in Norway

This paper suggest that we need to better understand the relationship between policy rationales and their scalar orientation. The former refers to the underlying motivations for proposing policies. The latter refers to two dimensions: the geography of challenges that policy seek to address, and the geography of effects that policy seek to instigate. Such variations in the scalar orientation of national level climate and energy policy, may lead to differing rationales for (not) supporting technologies that can contribute to decarbonization, depending also on their alignment with broader context structures. In this way, scalar orientation of policy rationales may have significant implications for technology legitimacy. We develop a conceptual framework that distinguishes four types of scalar orientation in local/global challenges and effects. Empirically, we analyse how shifting scalar orientation of policy rationales in Norway has influenced legitimacy for LNG in shipping, offshore wind in the energy sector, and CCS for various user sectors.

Estimation of carbon stocks of woody plant species in church forests of West Gojjam zone, Northwestern Ethiopia: Implications for climate change mitigation

Forests, particularly church forests, play a crucial role in mitigating climate change by absorbing and storing CO2, preserving biodiversity, and acting as carbon sinks. This study aimed to estimate the biomass and carbon stocks of various woody species in church forests in the West Gojjam zone. Twenty-six church forests were selected based on agroecology, elevation, size, and proximity to population centers. Vegetation data were collected using a systematic sampling technique, with 20 m x 20 m (400 m2) plots established along transect lines oriented at 120° intervals at 60°, 180°, and 300° within each church forest. Measurements of diameter at breast height (DBH) and height were taken for all matured woody plants with a DBH ≥ 2.5 cm. Data analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA to evaluate the effects of altitude, forest size, and human disturbance on aboveground biomass (AGB) and carbon stocks. Additionally, linear regression was applied to investigate the relationship between vegetation structure (species richness, density, and diversity) and biomass accumulation. The results revealed a total of 111 woody species, dominated by indigenous species particularly from the Fabaceae family. The study church forests had Shannon diversity index and richness ranging from 1.73 to 3.47 and 7 to 45, respectively. The results showed that the 26 church forests had an average aboveground biomass (AGB) of 31.97 ± 3.31 tons ha-1 and a CO2 equivalence of 97.15 ± 10.47 tons ha-1. The AGB and aboveground carbon (AGC) values varied among the church forests, of which Debre Mihret Mesk Kidanemihret had the highest AGB with 99.00 tons ha-1 and 49.50 tons ha-1 AGC, indicating their substantial capacity for carbon storage. Conversely, Korch Silassie church forest displayed the lowest AGB, suggesting ecological challenges that necessitate targeted conservation efforts. These findings underscore the critical role of church forests as carbon sinks, capable of sequestering atmospheric CO2 and contributing to the mitigation of climate change. The findings of the present study suggest the integration of church forests into national and international climate policies, such as REDD+ to leverage their potential in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

Sufficiency in European Climate Policies, four country NECPs analysed

Backgrounds Sufficiency, a concept acknowledged by the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), is often not included in climate-mitigation strategies. Its elements are, however, well known in different policy areas. Thus, there are good reasons to elevate sufficiency to a central element of national and international sustainability strategies. Methods This article, through the lens of the FULFILL project, aims to elucidate sufficiency and evaluate its integration into climate strategies via the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) of four European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, and Italy. This shall offer insights into the current status of sufficiency policies and identify the best practices and areas for improvement. The analysis is based on the studies of sufficiency policies, identifying specific sufficiency measures. This leads to the development of a comprehensive overview and comparative analysis of how the four analysed countries incorporate sufficiency within their NECPs and to proposals for additional national sufficiency policies. The analysis focuses on policies that regulate social, infrastructural, and regulatory conditions that influence individual and collective behaviours. Results The article presents a clear and comprehensive analysis of the current tole of sufficiency policies in NECPs and their unused potential. Sufficiency policies are introduced in the countries analysed, but far from their potential to mitigate climate change. It also shows that existing sufficiency policies are primarily aiming at changing consumption and not to reduce consumption, such as reduced transport, reduced size of buildings. Another result is that some sufficiency policies are only introduced on local level by municipalities. Conclusion The conclusion is that some sufficiency policies are already integrated in national climate policies but their potentials are far from exhausted while other policies are hardly used, in particular policies to reduce consumption. This gives a large potential to increase sufficiency measures to strengthen climate policies and actions.

Using an interactive simulation tool of national energy and climate policy planning to explore environmental policy options from the perspectives of different interest groups

AbstractTo reach the Paris Agreement goals, European governments have defined national contributions to the EU binding climate goals and have developed national climate and energy plans for 2021–2030 (NECPs). NECPs are detailed strategies in which governments can flexibly emphasize specific sectors, technologies and national energy policy choices. Every country has built its own energy modelling capacity for forecasting purposes. In most countries, this national modelling relies on optimization tools such as Markal or TIMES. For Latvia's energy sector, a system dynamics (SD) model was built to complement the TIMES model. The SD model deals with an integrated energy system, including the primary energy supply and transformation sector; energy distribution and storage system; and energy demand sectors (residential, tertiary, public, industry and transportation). Sectoral policies are presented in the Stella Architect interface. This study demonstrates how the interactive simulation tool was used in the Environmental Engineering Master level course ‘Environmental Policy and Economics’ as an experiential learning approach. The student assignment involved applying this tool to develop and analyse the energy transition policy package for one of four ideological interest groups: deep greens, bright greens, light greens and greys. Students had to assume a role and adopt its perspective by applying their border‐crossing competence and reflecting on selected policy mixes for that ideology. Various transition pathways, based on different ideologies, illustrate the possibilities for application. Results show that students were successful in fulfilling the assignment.

Comparing Regional and National Climate Policy Preferences: An Analysis of Political Parties in the Basque Country and Catalonia

Abstract Recent research has uncovered positive connections between parties’ center-periphery and climate policy preferences when they compete in regional elections, with pro-periphery parties using climate concerns to bolster their territorial claims. However, the particular significance of climate change at the regional level, due to its more direct impacts in this arena, raises questions about the extent to which these parties replicate similar behaviors in national elections. To address this gap, this article analyzes the manifestos of parties that secured representation during the 2016 and 2019 Spanish general elections, as well as in the regional elections held during overlapping periods in Catalonia (2017 and 2021) and the Basque Country (2016 and 2020). The empirical findings reveal that parties with stronger pro-decentralization and pro-independence stances allocate more content to climate change and adopt more favorable positions on this issue in their regional manifestos compared to their national counterparts.

The ocean carbon sink enhances countries’ inclusive wealth and reduces the cost of national climate policies

Improving our understanding of future ocean carbon uptake requires a nuanced understanding of the value of the annual ocean sink. Here, we combine an abatement cost-based approach and a climate damage-based approach to assess the value of the annual ocean sink. The former shows that the aggregate cost of national climate policies could increase by up to USD 80 billion if the ocean carbon sink weakens by 10 percent. As a complementary perspective, the damage-based approach shows that the annual ocean carbon sink contributes between USD 300 billion and USD 2,332 billion to countries’ inclusive wealth. Despite the conceptual appeal of the damage-based approach for its potential insights into regional wealth redistribution, uncertainties in national social cost of carbon estimates make it less reliable than the abatement cost-based approach, which in turn provides more reliable estimates for a fiscal cost assessment of improved monitoring services of the ocean carbon sink.

A robust decision-making approach in climate policy design for possible net zero futures

The energy modelling community’s analysis of net zero often relies on approaches that hide the extent of uncertainty. Meanwhile the extent of uncertainty involved in the realisation of net zero is proliferating. Conventional consolidative modelling approaches lack of transparency is distorting decision making and policy design around net zero. This contribution uses the UK’s Committee on Climate Changes 6th Carbon Budget as a case study. An exploratory, Robust Decision-Making approach is used to highlight the fragility of conventional UK modelling approaches in shaping national climate policy. A new suite of tools, orientation of analysis and mixed approaches are needed to address the extent of complexity, uncertainty and emergence in possible net zero futures. Only then will robust, inclusive and realisable climate policy be designed.

Sufficiency gains limited attention in Finnish climate policy on household consumption

The affluent lifestyles of the Global North are pushing the carrying capacity of the Earth to its limits. Despite technical improvements in energy efficiency and decarbonation, the carbon footprint of an average Finn continues to exceed the sustainable level. To critically assess both social and ecological aspects of overconsumption in households, sufficiency has gained attention in the research and policy fields. However, there is limited research into the ways in which sufficiency has been implemented in national climate policies guiding household energy consumption. In this article, I analyse the presence of sufficiency politics and policies in the Finnish Medium-term Climate Change Policy Plans of 2017 and 2022. The aim of the study was to find out whether the plans include references to deeper transformation of the socio-political and economic system towards sufficiency and in what ways the plans expect to steer or influence carbon-intensive household consumption in housing, mobility and nutrition. A close reading of the plans was conducted by utilising a modified version of the analytical framework created by Callmer and Bradley (2021). The findings show that sufficiency has not yet gained ground in Finnish climate policy. The sufficiency politics and policies found in the plans were not well-articulated and relied mostly on voluntary change. The macro-level conditions for and the potential macroeconomic impact of voluntary consumption reduction are largely ignored. This highlights the tendency of Finnish public policy to normalise unsustainable ways of consuming energy by disregarding the role of markets and economic growth in accelerating climate change.

Defending the climate cause within the state: the ministry of ecology and the drafting of France’s national low-carbon strategy (2017–2020)

ABSTRACT National climate policies have generated a considerable body of research in academic literature. Focusing on the little-studied case of France, this article examines the way in which, in this country, the State has drafted its latest low-carbon strategy (SNBC). Drawing on approaches such as ‘bureaucratic politics’ and ‘administrative capacity’, it questions the ability of the administration responsible for writing this document (and thus defending the climate cause) to make its voice heard within the political-administrative arena. Based on an in-depth sociological study, this article shows that this administration found itself in a position of ‘powerlessness’, due to three main factors: instrumental (the limited scope of the tool, reflecting an initial will to reduce its impact), organizational (the subordinate position of this administration within the bureaucratic hierarchy) and political (weak support from government). The result is a contested strategy, unlikely to bring about a credible roadmap to implement the necessary changes.

GENDER FRONTLINES: EXPLORING THE INTERSECTIONALITY OF GENDER AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Gender Frontlines: Exploring the Intersectionality of Gender and Climate Change delves into the intricate relationship between gender and climate change, emphasizing how climate impacts exacerbate existing social inequalities. Climate change, with its severe effects on ecosystems and human societies, disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, particularly women, girls, transgender, and non-binary individuals. The framework of intersectionality, as introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw, is crucial for understanding these compounded vulnerabilities influenced by overlapping social identities such as gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Through the lens of Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5), which advocates for gender equality, this article underscores the necessity of integrating gender perspectives into climate policies. It reviews how climate change affects health, economic stability, displacement, and migration, particularly among women and other marginalized genders. The article includes case studies from India, highlighting the challenges faced by women in agriculture in Telangana, the aftermath of Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal, and the impact of heatwaves on elderly women in urban slums. Furthermore, the article analyzes national and international climate policies, revealing gaps in gender-specific outcomes and the need for targeted enforcement. It advocates for a proactive approach to future climate strategies, emphasizing the importance of gender-disaggregated data, equal representation in decision-making, and targeted interventions. The article concludes with a call to action for comprehensive, gender-sensitive climate policies, engaging communities, NGOs, and governments in a collaborative effort to ensure an inclusive and equitable response to climate change.

Greenhouse gas emissions in the Indian agriculture sector and mitigation by best management practices and smart farming technologies-a review.

The growing demand for agricultural products, driven by the Green Revolution, has led to a significant increase in food production. However, the demand is surpassing production, making food security a major concern, especially under climatic variation. The Indian agriculture sector is highly vulnerable to extreme rainfall, drought, pests, and diseases in the present climate change scenario. Nonetheless, the key agriculture sub-sectors such as livestock, rice cultivation, and biomass burning also significantly contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a driver of global climate change. Agriculture activities alone account for 10-12% of global GHG emissions. India is an agrarian economy and a hub for global food production, which is met by intensive agricultural inputs leading to the deterioration of natural resources. It further contributes to 14% of the country's total GHG emissions. Identifying the drivers and best mitigation strategies in the sector is thus crucial for rigorous GHG mitigation. Therefore, this review aims to identify and expound the key drivers of GHG emissions in Indian agriculture and present the best strategies available in the existing literature. This will help the scientific community, policymakers, and stakeholders to evaluate the current agricultural practices and uphold the best approach available. We also discussed the socio-economic, and environmental implications to understand the impacts that may arise from intensive agriculture. Finally, we examined the current national climate policies, areas for further research, and policy amendments to help bridge the knowledge gap among researchers, policymakers, and the public in the national interest toward GHG reduction goals.

An Indigenous climate justice policy analysis tool

ABSTRACT Climate action threatens to exacerbate existing social inequities, so it is important for justice to be at the heart of national responses to climate change. Based on an understanding of climate change as a manifestation of severed relationships and exploitative dynamics that are produced and reproduced through colonial, capitalist, patriarchal systems, we argue that the ways in which we conceptualize and enact climate justice must be decolonial, ecocentric, relational and integrative. Consistent with this positioning, we sought to develop an Indigenous climate justice policy analysis tool to assess and inform policy development. We drew on elements of existing frameworks and tools to develop a tool, which was progressively refined following external advisory group review and piloting. The tool addresses five dimensions of justice (relational, procedural, distributive, recognition and restorative), each of which comprises individual criteria assessed according to three levels of achievement. This rating system acknowledges progress within existing social, political and economic systems, but also identifies system transformation as a prerequisite for achieving genuine justice. Application of the tool focuses attention on issues well beyond typical climate policy considerations, such as the capacity of all human and non-human entities to express political agency. The tool has been developed for use in analysing national climate policy in Aotearoa New Zealand, but we have endeavoured to make it adaptable for use in other settings.

Comparative Analysis of Climate Change Policies: Pakistan VS. Global Approaches

Purpose: The current study compares global climate change policy to Pakistan's national climate policy in order to investigate global and national priorities in the context of carbon emission, air pollution, gender and smog under the adaptive management model. Methodology: The United Nations Climate Change Policy Papers and Pakistan's most current Climate Change Policy 2021, were analyzed in this work utilizing keyword search methods for contextualization in the qualitative data analysis program NVivo 11. Findings: The findings show that Pakistan's climate change strategy is highly similar to global climate change policy in terms of carbon emissions, a little less so in terms of gender, but not in terms of air pollution. It is concerning that smog, a serious problem in Pakistan, is not on the agenda of global climate change policy. Unique Contribution of theory, practice and policy: Through adaptive management, the research identifies specific gaps where national policies diverge from global priorities. For instance, the model helps to highlight the lack of emphasis on smog in global policies, a critical issue for Pakistan, thereby suggesting areas for improvement and alignment. The study suggests that the Pakistani government should make efforts to address this issue on a worldwide scale in order to solve the problem.

Use of the National Climate and Energy Policy Simulation Tool in the Policy Making Process

Energy transition towards CO2 neutral energy systems is challenging as the national energy policy depends on numerous factors. In system dynamics approach these factors are identified as causal and feedback loops with lock-ins, as a result constituting stock-and-flow structure. Such a kind of structure is used in different simulation tools. This study analyses the use of the Latvian national climate and energy policy simulation tool in the policy making process. As a hypothesis of the study was set that the simulation tool, which is based on the principles of systemic thinking (explaining causal relationships) and an easy-to-use user interface, significantly improves the national energy and climate policy making process. Accordingly, to verify the hypothesis the task was to evaluate the use of the national climate and energy policy simulation tool in the policy-making process. For the evaluation the relevant literature was reviewed: climate and energy policy goals, policies and legislation in the European Union and Latvia; approaches to modeling national climate and energy policies, including optimization models, simulation models; the use of simulation models in the modeling of national climate and energy policies; the use of system dynamics models in the modeling of national climate and energy policies. Besides using the systemic thinking approach in the process of creating national climate and energy policies, the user experience in building simulation tools was used. Based on the literature analysis, improvements to the interface of the national climate and energy simulation tool developed by Riga Technical University, Institute of Energy Systems and Environment were made and developed training material for the use of the simulation tool, based on explaining the causal relationships built into the model.

Speeches in the green: The political discourse of green central banking

In this paper, we employ a keyword-assisted topic model to quantify the extent of climate-related communication of central banks. We find evidence for a significant increase in climate-related speeches by central banks, which address the topic mostly in parallel with issues related to financial stability, whereas monetary policy and price stability are less emphasized. Finally, we examine factors that can explain the extent of green communication by central banks. Controlling for macroeconomic and climate-related variables, we identify two external factors that can prompt central banks to increase green communication: First, peer pressure, as measured by membership in Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), increases green communication. Second, a high degree of governmental climate engagement, reflected by the scope of national climate policies, correlates positively with central banks’ green communication. Whether the central bank has an implicit or explicit sustainability mandate, however, does not explain the extent of green communication.

Political influence on international climate agreements with border carbon adjustment

We study the influence of industrial lobbying on national climate policies and the formation of an international environmental agreement if the coalition countries use border carbon adjustments to protect domestic producers. We find that the effects of this political influence crucially depend on the distribution of carbon tax revenues. If these are transferred to the households, lobbying distorts carbon taxes downwards to reduce the tax burden and does not affect coalition sizes. This leads to higher emissions and lower welfare. By contrast, if tax revenues are given back to the firms, lobbies in the outsider countries favor carbon taxes, whereas lobbies in the coalition countries favor carbon subsidies to raise the international commodity price. This reduces the tax difference and the welfare difference between the countries, which reduces the free-rider incentives. Then, lobbying stabilizes the grand coalition and reduces global emissions compared to a “perfect” world without lobbying if the political influence is sufficiently strong.

Bangladesh's pathways to climate-resilient development: A methodical review

Climate resilient development pathways (CRDP) are procedures that reinforce sustainable development and reduce poverty and inequalities while meeting adaptation and mitigation targets. The study systematically assessed Bangladesh's efforts to combat climate change and evaluated its progress toward CRDP with a degree of confidence approach. It also assessed climate change vulnerability, national climate change plans and policies, climate finance conditions, and environmental sustainability. The study revealed that the recent climate change plans and strategies have transformative, social inclusiveness, gender responsiveness, climate resilience, institutional flexibility and coordination, and target setting and monitoring attributes from a moderate to large extent. However, to implement its recently developed climate plans like the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan, Delta Plan, NAP, and NDC, where funding is essential—the nation needs USD 533.7 billion. The study suggests that though the country has implemented several plans and strategies in recent decades, uneven progress has appeared in some important socio-economic and environmental indicators as well as SDGs which signifies low return against investment. It can be concluded that ensuring maximum socio-economic and environmental return on investment, long-term climate finance, strengthening local govt. organizations, adopting region specific and holistic approaches with private sector engagement would advance CRDP attainment as well as a nature positive economy and system transition in Bangladesh.

Prospects for the development of legal regulation of Green Recovery in Ukraine

Ukraine has committed itself to developing and implementing long-term measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As a party to the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the state is obliged to make its nationally determined contribution to achieve the goals of sustainable low-carbon development of all sectors of the economy and increase the ability to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. The official announcement of joining the European Green Deal demonstrates Ukraine’s unwavering intention to overcome the challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation by transforming into a modern resource-efficient and competitive economy. In June 2022, Ukraine was granted the status of a candidate for EU membership. These measures should be implemented despite Russia’s anti-Ukrainian armed aggression and difficult economic challenges.
 The purpose of this work is to determine the main directions of development of the legal mechanism for preventing climate change, which is being formed in the context of military realities, while ensuring that Ukraine strictly complies with its obligations under the European Green Deal.
 It is concluded that when developing the conceptual legal framework of the environmental security component as part of the Strategy for Post-War Recovery and Development of Ukraine and the relevant Action Plan, as well as sectoral programs for the restoration of the State, an appropriate climate policy should be formulated, coordinated with Ukraine’s further European integration.
 These include updated priority measures of the national climate policy, broad state support for environmental protection measures; digitalization of environmental relations; provision of funding for measures and investments aimed at developing competitive renewable generation and improving existing infrastructure, developing the potential of the hydrogen ecosystem, increasing the energy efficiency of buildings through the integration of renewable energy sources, decarbonizing insulation and cooling of buildings, ensuring the development of transport with low.

Группа наименее развитых стран (НРС) в международной климатической политике

Global climate change is one of the main challenges of our time. Rising temperatures threaten the stability of the ecological, socio-economic, and political systems around the globe. Countries in the Global South have the greatest material losses from climate change without having a significant impact on it. The high vulnerability of the group of least developed countries (LDCs) to climate change, coupled with social and economic challenges poverty, and lack of means for adaptation, determine its special rank and status in international climate policy. In it, the LDCs act as a single actor. Over the course of more than 30 years of climate policy, LDCs have initiated the adoption of a number of important documents and the creation of fundamental structures for international climate policy. At the same time, noticeable transformations have taken place to adapt and decarbonize the national structures of LDCs. The purpose of this article is to show the role of the LDC group in the formation of the United Nations (UN) climate agenda, institutional structures, and international mechanisms, to highlight their efforts to restore global climate justice, and to characterize modern national climate policy according to the legal documents adopted by the LDCs. The methodological basis is formed by historical, comparative approaches. The main objective of the article is to study the trajectories of the climate policy of the LDC group, highlight the stages of its evolution, demonstrate centre-peripheral relations to restore climate justice, and examine the internal policies of the LDCs. Policy initiatives of the LDCs played a direct role in the formation of climate finance funds, the group of experts on the least developed countries (LEG), and national programmes and plans for the adaptation of states to climate change. The article concludes that there are two stages in the development of climate policy in LDCs; it is assumed that the use of international mechanisms for adaptation and decarbonization could become a tool for the economic and technological modernization of LDCs and their achievement of the sustainable development goals of 2030. The main obstacles to this are the insufficient financing of available funds from countries of the Global North, high interest rates on loans, and the indebtedness of LDCs.