Innovation and Climate Change Policy

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 125-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua S Gans
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Alternative Energy ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Environmentally Friendly ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
Relative Demand ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Innovation Incentives

This paper examines whether climate change policies will induce innovation in environmentally friendly technologies. The model demonstrates that a tighter emissions cap will reduce the scale of fossil fuel usage and that this will diminish incentives to improve fossil fuel efficiencies. In addition, such policies may stimulate the relative demand for innovations that improve the efficiency of alternative energy but carbon scarcity may diminish innovation incentives overall. Only for technologies that directly abate carbon pollution will there be an unambiguously positive impact on innovation. These results have implications for climate change targets and the design of climate change policy. (JEL O31, Q54, Q55, Q58)

scholarly journals Mainstreaming biodiversity and wildlife management into climate change policy frameworks in selected east and southern African countries

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga L. Kupika ◽  
Godwell Nhamo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Wildlife Management ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
East African Community ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
Change Policy

The Rio+20 outcomes document, the Future We Want, enshrines green economy as one of the platforms to attain sustainable development and calls for measures that seek to address climate change and biodiversity management. This paper audits climate change policies from selected east and southern African countries to determine the extent to which climate change legislation mainstreams biodiversity and wildlife management. A scan of international, continental, regional and national climate change policies was conducted to assess whether they include biodiversity and/or wildlife management issues. The key finding is that many climate change policy–related documents, particularly the National Adaptation Programme of Actions (NAPAs), address threats to biodiversity and wildlife resources. However, international policies like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol do not address the matter under deliberation. Regional climate change policies such as the East African Community, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and African Union address biodiversity and/or wildlife issues whilst the Southern African Development Community region does not have a stand-alone policy for climate change. Progressive countries like Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia have recently put in place detailed NAPAs which are mainstream responsive strategies intended to address climate change adaptation in the wildlife sector.Keywords: mainstreaming, biodiversity, wildlife, climate change policy, east and southern Africa

scholarly journals Investing in climate solutions? An exploration of the discursive power and materiality of fossil fuel divestment campaigns in Scotland

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ella Muncie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Financial Investments ◽  
Zero Carbon ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
Discursive Power

AbstractDivestment is a climate change initiative that aims to persuade institutions, businesses, and governments to remove their financial investments from fossil fuel industries and instead invest in zero-carbon climate solutions. It has, however, also been conceived as an ongoing gateway tactic to curb long-term climate change and simultaneously secure social and environmental justice. Divestment has attracted global attention and is currently employed by numerous universities, religious institutions, art galleries, museums, and national and local governments, in various countries, including Scotland. However academic analysis of the movement remains underdeveloped. This article addresses such absence by giving a voice to the motives, tactics, and rationales as expressed by campaigners themselves. It identifies the collective action frames constructed by Scottish fossil fuel divestment campaigns in order to facilitate mobilisation and alignment with other climate change movements. A key premise of this article is to also explore the power of such frames to motivate action and to assess the extent to which divestment campaign groups can impact government discourse and policy. As such the article concludes by considering whether and how far divestment frames and discourses may have come to inform the climate change policy of the devolved Scottish Government.

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 Comparative Analysis of UK and Lithuanian Political Institutional Communicative Climate Change Discourses

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Audronė Telešienė ◽  
Eimantė Zolubienė
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Relational Theory ◽  
Member States ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Research Questions

The aim of this paper is to analyse the ways how climate change related risks are being constructed in political institutional discourses. We draw upon the political communicative texts, i.e. texts prepared by governmental authorities, from the pre- and post-Paris agreement period, i.e. 2015–2016. Our empirical analysis is guided by the relational theory of risk, theory of discursive institutionalism, critical discourse analysis, notions of interdiscursivity and interpretive repertoires. The main research questions are the following: What are the threats typically associated with climate change (source of risk)?; What are the objects-at-risk typically spoken of in political communicative discourses?; How are the relations of the risk source and object-at-risk discursively constructed (e.g. vulnerability, resilience, etc.)?; What is the overall ‘repertoire’ of typical climate change related risks as discursively constructed in political communicative texts? To answer the research questions, Lithuania and United Kingdom are taken for cross-national comparison. UK is regarded as a leader in international and domestic climate change policy, whereas climate change policies are treated instrumentally in Lithuania. Both Lithuania and UK, as EU member states, follow the general EU climate change policy. Yet because of differences in public attitudes and other socio-political contexts, the effectiveness of climate change policies is different. Contrasting the two member states and looking for underlying discursive practices, that serve as grounds for climate action, bring new scientific insights. The analysis of the sampled texts is conducted using NVivo.

scholarly journals Methods to Evaluate Electricity Policy from Climate Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-147
Author(s):  
Liga Rozentale ◽  
Dagnija Blumberga
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Electricity Market ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
National Level ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change

Abstract Nowadays government policies to mitigate climate change are of a wide variety and they are evaluated before and after implementation. Much research has been conducted on how climate change policy will affect the climate. However, there is very little research on policies that are not intended to mitigate or reduce climate change and which, from the policy makers’ point of view, have no relation to climate change. The goal of this study is to review the electricity policy in Latvia and the aspects that can be evaluated under this policy, and apply multiple-criteria analysis to determine on what spheres the electricity policy leaves the most positive impact – is it climate or are they consumers and other electricity market players? The outcome of the analysis shows that, at the national level, the most positive impact on climate is provided by the National Energy and Climate Plan, indicating that climate is taken into consideration mostly only under complex multi-sectoral legislation.

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 Institutional Engagement Practices as Barriers to Public Health Capacity in Climate Change Policy Discourse: Lessons from the Canadian Province of Ontario

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (17) ◽  
pp. 6338
Author(s):  
Luckrezia Awuor ◽  
Richard Meldrum ◽  
Eric N. Liberda
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Canadian Province ◽  
Climate Change Policies ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Public Health Organizations

Public health engagement in the communication, discussion, and development of climate change policies is essential for climate change policy decisions and discourse. This study examines how the existing governance approaches impact, enable, or constrain the inclusion, participation, and deliberation of public health stakeholders in the climate change policy discourse. Using the case study of the Canadian Province of Ontario, we conducted semi-structured, key informant interviews of public health (11) and non-public health (13) participants engaged in climate change policies in the province. The study results reveal that engagement and partnerships on climate change policies occurred within and across public health and non-public health organizations in Ontario. These engagements impacted public health’s roles, decisions, mandate, and capacities beyond the climate change discourse; enabled access to funds, expertise, and new stakeholders; built relationships for future engagements; supported knowledge sharing, generation, and creation; and advanced public health interests in political platforms and decision making. However, public health’s participation and deliberation were constrained by a fragmented sectoral approach, a lack of holistic inter-organizational structures and process, political and bureaucratic influences, irregular and unestablished communication channels for public health integration, and identities and culture focused on functions, mandates, biased ideologies, and a lack of clear commitment to engage public health. We conclude by providing practical approaches for integrating public health into climate change discourse and policymaking processes and advancing public health partnerships and collaborative opportunities.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document