scholarly journals Is Australia Faking It? The Kyoto Protocol and the Greenhouse Policy Challenge

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 118-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Crowley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Kyoto Protocol ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Emission Reduction ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Policy Challenge ◽  
Ideas And Institutions

While Australia has signed both the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, it has failed to ratify the latter. It is nevertheless committed to meeting its +8% Kyoto target for greenhouse gas emissions, and argues that it is on track to doing so. This paper examines Australia's non-ratification politics and greenhouse policy efforts in an attempt to explain its contrary position of resisting Kyoto, yet embracing and pursuing its emission reduction targets. Australia's behavior as a carbon-intensive nation is highly significant in the global context, and this paper focuses on the domestic factors of interests, ideas and institutions, while also considering international factors in trying to explain Australia's non-ratification of Kyoto and climate change policy development. It finds that while ideas and institutions have been modifying influences in the domestic context, political and economic interests have dominated Australia's greenhouse policy.

scholarly journals Two Birds with One Stone: The political and environmental motives of Quebec’s climate change policy

Federalism-E ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Rebecca Teare
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Kyoto Protocol ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Energy Industry ◽  
The Political ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Political Dispute

In 2000 Quebec was about to host its provincial counterparts for that year’s Joint Meeting of Ministers of the Environment and Energy in an effort to work in unison for the benefit of all Canadians and the environment. Quebec’s Ministers were clear about their position on climate change policy. In their province, Quebec’s policy will prevail. Federalism lies at the heart of the political dispute between Quebec and the federal government over the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. Quebec has pressured the federal government to maintain its commitments to the international community, and has been critical of its approach to meeting them. It has seriously considered the commitments Canada has made, and in the process, diverged from federal climate change policy by taking a more global perspective. This has enabled the province to generate greater provincial powers within Canada, in line with the Quebec Liberal Party’s concept of federalism. This essay will investigate climate change policy in Quebec after the Quiet Revolution, focusing on the differences between this province and the federal government’s approach to international climate change agreements—specifically the Kyoto Protocol. Quebec has developed firmer climate change policy than the federal government. While this is possible because of Quebec’s energy industry and the fact that it does not have to compromise with other jurisdictions in the federation, it has provided an additional outlet for the Quebecois sense of distinctiveness in Canada. This essay will argue that Quebec pursues a more ambitious climate change policy than the federal government in order to increase its provincial powers within the Canadian federation.[...]

scholarly journals Climate Policy Paralysis in Australia: Energy Security, Energy Poverty and Jobs

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 4894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saleem H. Ali ◽  
Kamila Svobodova ◽  
Jo-Anne Everingham ◽  
Mehmet Altingoz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Energy Security ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Media Content Analysis ◽  
Energy Poverty ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Thermal Coal ◽  
Domestic Energy

According to the 2020 Climate Change Performance Index, Australia was ranked as the worst-performing country on climate change policy. The country has an ambivalent record of climate policy development as well as implementation, and has been criticized for its inaction. This paper considers why the country has been locked in climate policy “paralysis” through analyzing defining attributes of such a paralysis, and the tentative connections between domestic energy policies and international trade and development. We conducted a media content analysis of 222 articles and identified media narratives in three cases of energy projects in the country involving thermal coal exports, domestic renewable energy storage, and closure of a domestic coal power station. The analysis reveals that policy paralysis in Australian climate change policy can be traced back to the countervailing arguments that have been pervasive around domestic energy security, rural employment and international energy poverty. The political establishment has struggled to develop a sustainable consensus on climate change and the citizenry remains polarized. We also discuss how a “focusing event,” such as a major natural disaster can break the impasse but this is only possible if energy security at home, energy poverty abroad and employment imperatives across the board are clearly delineated, measured and prioritized.

scholarly journals REDD+ and the Clean Development Mechanism: A comparative perspective

2013 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Lovleen Bhullar
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Kyoto Protocol ◽  
Clean Development Mechanism ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Governance Mechanism ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Development Mechanism

The program, ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation’ (REDD), which operates within the international climate change policy framework, is projected to emerge as one of the key climate change mitigation mechanisms for developing countries. The existing Afforestation/Reforestation (A/R) mechanism, operating under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, may prove useful for drawing lessons for the emerging REDD program, since both mechanisms represent flexible means for developed countries to achieve compliance with their mitigation targets under the Kyoto Protocol. The possible means include CDM as the basis for a project-based approach for the implementation of REDD (if adopted) or the inclusion of REDD within CDM. This article compares the features of A/R CDM and REDD, identifies similarities and differences, and analyses the extent to which the former can provide guidance for the development of a carbon governance mechanism for REDD.

The Billion-Dollar Kyoto Botch-up: Climate Change Communication in New Zealand

2008 ◽  
Vol 127 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-151
Author(s):  
Chris Russill
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Kyoto Protocol ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Change Policy

New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions have increased significantly since 1990. This article examines how the fact of increasing emissions is discussed and given significance in New Zealand's national public discourse on climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions became a serious public concern on 17 June 2005, when the New Zealand government estimated a $307 million Kyoto Protocol liability in its 2005 financial statements. Conservative media coverage of this report emphasised governmental miscalculation, the financial liabilities generated by Kyoto Protocol regulations and a struggle between Climate Change Minister Peter Hodgson and industry voices over how to define the problem. This article links the arguments and discursive strategies used in the 17 June 2005 newspaper coverage of increasing greenhouse gas emissions to the institutional actors shaping New Zealand climate change policy. The increased effectiveness of industry challenges to government climate change policy is noted and discussed.

scholarly journals The Climate for Change: the Conditions for Effective Climate Change Policies: a Case Study on Residential Home Insulation Policies in New Zealand and Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Oliver Lah
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Residential Home ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
Change Policy

<p>Changes in the global climate and the insecure future of the world's energy supply place unprecedented risks and uncertainties before mankind. Massive changes need to occur, driven by effective policies. But what is the ideal climate for change? With a case study on insulation policies for the residential building sector this thesis aims to identify the conditions for a climate for change. This thesis explores the factors that help or hinder change and the structures that enable change and enhance implementation. Within a particular policy area, i.e. residential home insulation, this thesis examines the impacts on policy development and implementation of environmental and resources pressures, the strength of centre-left and green parties and the levels of corporatism in New Zealand and Germany. The case study of insulation policies in New Zealand and Germany has been chosen because of similar policy aspirations and rhetoric in the two countries but differing policy achievements and outcomes. The thesis compares three decades of policy making and implementation in Germany and New Zealand and finds that, if environmental and resource pressures are high, corporatist structures may impact positively on climate change policy development and implementation. It also finds that in pluralist countries centre-left and green party strength may be more important for the success of climate change policies than in corporatist countries.</p>

scholarly journals Climate Change Policy 101

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Policy Option ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
Climate Change Issue ◽  
Policy Review ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Response Policy

Similar to other policy issues, climate change policy proceeds in a cyclical fashion that proceeds from agenda setting, to policy development, to implementation, and finally to monitoring and review. Agenda setting involves politicians becoming convinced, usually by the science but also by politics and public opinion, that the climate issue deserves a policy response. Policy development involves a great deal of economic and policy option assessments that are winnowed down to a few options that may have “political traction” (i.e. those politicians think might succeed). Policy implementation involves turning policies into law and regulations that industry and individuals will act upon. Policy review, especially monitoring outcomes, is perhaps the most important phase, and for the climate change issue, the ongoing conclusion to date seems to be that more needs to be done, leading to the policy cycle starting over again. But there are also disturbing signs that this “top-down” approach is no longer working, and more “bottom-up” approaches, linked to the energy sector and clean technology, may become important new forces in forging action on climate change.

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