scholarly journals The political sustainability of climate policy: The case of the UK Climate Change Act

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1339-1348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Lockwood
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Sustainability ◽  
The Uk

scholarly journals Are citizen juries and assemblies on climate change driving democratic climate policymaking? An exploration of two case studies in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Wells ◽  
Candice Howarth ◽  
Lina I. Brand-Correa
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In light of increasing pressure to deliver climate action targets, and the growing role of citizens in raising the importance of the issue, deliberative democratic processes (e.g. Citizen Juries and Citizen Assemblies) on climate change are increasingly being used to provide a voice to citizens in climate change decision-making. Through a comparative case study of two processes that ran in the UK in 2019 (the Leeds Climate Change Citizens’ Jury and the Oxford Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change), this paper investigates how far Citizen Assemblies and Juries on climate change are increasing citizen engagement on climate change and creating more citizen-centred climate policy-making. Interviews were conducted with policy-makers, councillors, professional facilitators and others involved in running these processes to assess motivations for conducting these, their structure and the impact and influence they had. The findings suggest the impact of these processes is not uniform: they have an indirect impact on policymaking by creating momentum around climate action and supporting the introduction of pre-planned or pre-existing policies rather than a direct impact by being truly being citizen-centred policymaking processes or conducive to new climate policy. We conclude with reflections on how these processes give elected representatives a public mandate on climate change, that they help to identify more nuanced and in-depth public opinions in a fair and informed way, yet it can be challenging to embed citizen juries and assemblies in wider democratic processes.

The effect of climate policy on the impacts of climate change on river flows in the UK

2014 ◽  
Vol 510 ◽  
pp. 424-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel W. Arnell ◽  
Matthew B. Charlton ◽  
Jason A. Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
River Flows ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

scholarly journals How Members of Parliament understand and respond to climate change

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Willis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
National Level ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
Members Of Parliament ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
The Uk

Action on climate change, to meet the targets set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, requires strong political support at the national level. Whilst the political and governance challenges of climate change have been discussed at length, there is little understanding of how politicians, as influential individuals within the political system, understand or respond to climate change. This article presents findings from 14 qualitative interviews with Members of the UK Parliament, to discuss how politicians conceptualise climate change, and their deliberations on whether or how to act on the issue. First, it reviews an interdisciplinary literature from sociology, political theory and science and technology studies, to investigate how politicians navigate their work and life. Second, it presents ‘composite narratives’ to provide four different MPs’ stories. Last, it draws conclusions and implications for practice. It highlights three crucial factors: identity, or how politicians consider the climate issue in the context of their professional identity and the cultural norms of their workplace; representation, how politicians assess their role as a representative, and whether proposed political action on climate is seen as compatible with this representative function; and working practices, how day-to-day work rituals and pressures influence the aims, ambitions and engagement of politicians with climate change.

scholarly journals Cross-Party Collaboration on Climate Policy: the experience of GLOBE-NZ

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kennedy Graham
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Political Psychology ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
The Political ◽  
United Nations Framework Convention ◽  
Baseline Levels ◽  
Human Problem

Climate change has been described as the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced (Ban Ki-moon, 2014). No surprise, then, that it is challenging human problem solving, to an unprecedented degree. The 2015 Paris Agreement was a breakthrough in climate diplomacy, but progress is confined so far to the political psychology of achieving universality for emission reductions, a quarter of a century after the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) called for a return to baseline levels within a decade.

scholarly journals Psychological Barriers to Bipartisan Public Support for Climate Policy

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 492-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leaf Van Boven ◽  
Phillip J. Ehret ◽  
David K. Sherman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Opposing Party ◽  
Democrats And Republicans ◽  
Depth Interviews

Psychological scientists have the expertise—and arguably an obligation—to help understand the political polarization that impedes enactment of climate policy. Many explanations emphasize Republican skepticism about climate change. Yet results from national panel studies in 2014 and 2016 indicate that most Republicans believe in climate change, if not as strongly as Democrats. Political polarization over climate policy does not simply reflect that Democrats and Republicans disagree about climate change but that Democrats and Republicans disagree with each other. The results of a national panel experiment and of in-depth interviews with four former members of Congress suggest that Democrats and Republicans—both ordinary citizens and policymakers—support policies from their own party and reactively devalue policies from the opposing party. These partisan evaluations occur both for policies historically associated with liberal principles and politicians (cap-and-trade) and for policies associated with conservative principles and politicians (revenue-neutral carbon tax). People also exaggerate how much other Democrats and Republicans are swayed by partisanship. This foments false norms of partisan opposition that, in turn, influence people’s personal policy support. Correcting misperceived norms of opposition and decoupling policy evaluation from identity concerns would help overcome these seemingly insurmountable barriers to bipartisan support for climate policy.

Hot Planet, Cold Wars

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 533-548
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Kane
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Gas Emissions

Shared challenges can bring out the best in people, but they can also do the opposite. Global climate change is an archetypal shared challenge for humanity, and although the threat has inspired a substantial amount of international co-operation, efforts to moderate it have already proven divisive. These divisions go beyond economically-driven haggling over who must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by what amount. Attempts to mitigate human civilisation's effects on the climate raise questions of political principle. Moreover, these questions have the specific potential to mobilise certain states and quasi-states against certain other ones, and this has implications for the field of security studies. Thus, climate change threatens to revive ideological dispute among armed, organised economically-developed societies. Although the idea of a world war over carbon remains far-fetched, the parallels with the international politics of the mid–20th century are disturbing. Policymakers would be wise to take the political questions of climate change more seriously than they appear to have done in the past. Scholars may note that disputes over global warming challenge influential models of contemporary global politics. This paper explores the reasons why controversies over climate policy are likely to prove particularly divisive in international politics. The first section discusses the relative ideological consensus that has prevailed among developed societies since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Even pessimistic theorists initially took this consensus for granted. As of 2005, however, this consensus is stretched thin on numerous issues. One of these issues is climate policy. A second section of this paper discusses the stakes in the climate debate, suggesting that this dispute is likely to be a particularly important one. The third section notes that attempts to limit global carbon dioxide emissions raise questions about citizens' relationships to each other and to the state. Historically, such questions have raised issues of principle. These issues have had moral and emotional implications that run far beyond the material issues involved. Many nations, notably the US, have resolved these issues by adopting the political system known as republicanism. A fourth section discusses the concept of a republic and the problems it presents for those who wish to develop an international policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The fifth section notes that a broad, if informal, movement in early 21st century politics directly challenges republicanism. Debates over climate policy have already served to deepen this division. A conclusion sums up the paper's findings and reflects on their implications. Future work in the field of security studies will need to address the potential friction between republican and anti-republican political entities, and this paper highlights one of the forms this friction may take.

scholarly journals Climate policy, regulation and governance: introduction

2021 ◽  
Vol 9s10 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Simon Goldhill ◽  
Georgie Fitzgibbon
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Food System ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Regulatory Systems ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Climate Change Governance ◽  
Policy Solutions

Regulatory systems and innovative policy solutions are addressing the current and future effects of climate change. The articles presented here range from broad views on climate change governance in agroforestry systems and insights from climate-funded food system projects, to the nationally specific, exploring regulatory contexts in the UK, China, and Mexico. They consider state, private, and civil society actors. Together, they demonstrate the importance of innovative policy solutions to climate regulatory and governance problems.

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