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Anthropogenic climate change poses a threat to all people and governments, but the response to that threat varies enormously across countries. Some adopt politically costly and economically challenging climate change mitigation policies, while others deny that climate change is occurring. Why do some countries adopt effective climate change policie...
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Context 1
... the other hand, specifications C-F show that the strength of the carbonintensive industry lobby is a factor holding back climate change policies (see in particular models E and F). This is illustrated in Figure 4, which plots countries' carbon emissions per tonne of CO2 against their scores on CLIMI. Table 2 also shows that, once knowledge of climate change is taken into account, and controlling for international commitments and CO2 emissions, democracy and state administrative capacity are not significant predictors of good climate change policies. ...
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Examines the effectiveness of UNFCCC in developing and co-ordinating climate change policy.
Citations
... The primary dependent variable evaluates climate change policies, using the Climate Laws, Institutions, and Measures Index (CLIM). The measure, originally constructed by Steves et al. (2011), assesses the policies implemented by countries to address climate change. 4 The index has been used in multiple recent studies (Mavisakalyan and Tarverdi 2019; Neumayer 2016, 2013) and comprises of 12 weighted sub-components grouped into four key policy areas 5 with respective weights of 0.1, 0.4, 0.4, and 0.1. ...
Beneficial influence of female representation in implementing environment-friendly policies have been documented in recent studies. However, presence of factors such as corruption and bureaucratic red tapes, known to hinder development initiatives, raises question about whether women legislators can achieve the desired level of success with environmental policies. Based on our empirical analysis using cross-sectional data for 83 countries, we find evidence that the positive impact of women in parliament on climate change policy outcomes is significant and most effective for countries with low levels of corruption. Depending on the model specification used, ranging from instrumental variable regressions to inclusion of controls to mitigate omitted variable bias, and matching models, we do find that the beneficial impact of women in parliament becomes insignificant and eventually might become negative with rising corruption. Thus, while women might be able to successfully propose a bill for and turn-into-law, environment-friendly policies in countries with low levels of corruption, the effort is nullified and might be reversed in case of countries with high corruption. We illustrate that the results are sensitive to model selection, and choice of controls.
... Since the 2000s, a growing body of economic literature has focused on quantifying the stringency of environmental policies. Environmental policies across the world have often been compiled by surveying governments or large firms (Dasgupta et al., 2001;Eliste and Fredriksson, 2002;Esty and Porter, 2005;Steves and Teytelboym, 2013). ...
... Dasgupta's index was later partially extended by Eliste and Fredriksson (2002) for agriculture and 31 additional countries. A narrower but similar survey-based index was introduced by Steves and Teytelboym (2013) with the Climate Laws, Institutions, and Measures Index (CLIM Index). The approach relies on 95 government communications to the UNFCCC, accounting for every mitigation policy adopted up to 2011. ...
... This indicator combines several aspects such as international cooperation in environmental legislation, national regulation measures on polluting sectors (energy, transport, construction, agriculture, forestry and industry) and the existence of control institutions and long-term objectives in terms of pollution. From the surveys, Dasgupta et al. (2001) and Steves and Teytelboym (2013) attempt to identify and score environmental policies and their stringency. Both indexes, built by scoring governments' officials assertions in the surveys, may present a strong self-reporting bias. ...
With climate change and the collapse of ecosystems, environmental issues are becoming critical to modern societies. In response, policymakers around the world are introducing a growing number of environmental legislations that disrupt the environment-socioeconomic nexus. Identifying environmental policy instruments implemented worldwide and quantifying their stringency would allow for significant new developments in the evaluation of such policies. The existing literature offers databases covering a limited number of countries, years, and environmental aspects. This research bridges this gap by introducing the original comparative Multi-dimensional Environmental Legislation Stringency Index (MELSI). Available for 197 countries, from 1950 to 2020, the MELSI is a composite index that incorporates a large variety of environment dimensions such as terrestrial and marine ecosystems protection, air quality, agriculture, land use, and forest, freshwater and waste management. For each environmental dimension, numerous environmental policies and policy instruments have been tracked and scored in order to build a stringency index. This original dataset provides comprehensive new insights on environmental policies, strongly relevant for future environmental policy evaluations and recommendations.
... Climate change poses a threat to both people and governments, though responses vary greatly across the globe. While some implement politically and economically challenging climate change mitigation strategies, others refuse to acknowledge that it exists (Steves & Teytelboym, 2013). Previous research (Anderson et al., 2019) indicates that climate change will cause crop failures and hence most likely to result in lower crop yields and price variability. ...
... However, countries differ substantially in their willingness to mitigate the far-reaching consequences of changing climate conditions. For example, European countries are strongly committed to reducing the carbon footprint of their economic activities (Steves et al., 2011;Vu, 2021b). By contrast, African economies are less likely to implement emission-reducing policies and measures and collaborate on addressing global climate change (Steves et al., 2011). ...
... For example, European countries are strongly committed to reducing the carbon footprint of their economic activities (Steves et al., 2011;Vu, 2021b). By contrast, African economies are less likely to implement emission-reducing policies and measures and collaborate on addressing global climate change (Steves et al., 2011). International differences in the propensity to collaborate on addressing global climate change can be captured by the climate change cooperation index (CC) developed by Bernauer and B€ ohmelt (2013). ...
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the extent to which the cultural dimension of individualism/collectivism matters for international differences in climate change policy performance. This study postulates that individualistic societies, relative to their collectivistic counterparts, are more likely to address global climate change.
Design/methodology/approach
The main hypothesis is tested using data for a world sample of up to 92 countries. To achieve causal inference, this study isolates exogenous sources of variation in individualistic cultures, based on blood distance to the UK and historical pathogen prevalence.
Findings
The core results suggest that individualistic countries are characterized by greater climate change policy performance. This study also finds evidence that individualism affects climate change policy adoption through enhancing governance and female political representation. Subnational analyses based on data from the World Values Survey indicate that survey participants with an orientation toward individualism tend to self-report positive attitudes to pro-environmental policies.
Research limitations/implications
The main findings help improve the understanding of the deep origins of climate change policy performance, which is relevant for formulating policies that help mitigate the consequences of changing climate conditions.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first study to link cultural traits of individualism and climate change policy performance across countries.
... A két aspektus szorosan összefügg, hiszen a klímaváltozás problémájának valódiságáról alkotott meggyőződés és tudás szükséges, de nem elégséges feltétele a cselekvési hajlandóságnak (pl. Kotchen, Boyle, Leiserowitz 2013;Levi, Flachsland, Jakob 2020;Steves, Teytelboym 2013). ...
Tanulmányom célja, hogy szakirodalmi áttekintés segítségével feltérképezze, hogy milyen tényezők befolyásolják az egyéni és társadalmi attitűdöket a klímaváltozással kapcsolatban, és milyen mechanizmusok alakítják a cselekvési hajlandóságot és a klímapolitikák társadalmi elfogadottságát. A tanulmány három különböző szinten vizsgálja ezeket a mechanizmusokat. Az olyan mikroszintű faktor, mint az iskolázottság, az egyéni preferenciákat alakítja. Az egyéni preferenciákat azonban erősen befolyásolhatják intézményi (mezo-) és strukturális (makro-) tényezők. Egy ország gazdasági fejlettsége például meghatározhatja a társadalmi vélekedéseket a környezetvédelmi kihívások fontosságáról, de egy régió fokozott kitettsége a klímaváltozás negatív hatásainak (sérülékenység) is befolyásolhatja a társadalmi percepciókat a probléma súlyosságával és az elvárható klímavédelmi intézkedések mértékével kapcsolatban (makroszint). Hasonló közvetítő fontossággal bírnak az olyan intézményi faktorok (mezoszint), mint az intézményekbe vetett magas társadalmi bizalom, mivel az mélyebb elköteleződést von maga után a közös ügyek megoldása iránt. Az áttekintés ezért több intézményi és strukturális tényezőt is számba vesz a teljesebb kép elérése érdekében.
Tanulmányom nem csupán a különböző magyarázó elméleteket mutatja be, hanem számot ad a legfontosabb empirikus kutatások eredményeiről is. A klímatudatosságot több különböző tudományág vizsgálja, ezért különösen fontos, hogy eredményeiket oly módon szintetizáljuk, ami a különböző kapcsolódási pontokon keresztül lehetővé teszi a tudásfelhalmozást. Jelen munkámmal ehhez kívánok tudományos hozzájárulást nyújtani. A klímatudatosságot alakító tényezők ismeretének ugyanakkor kiemelt közpolitikai vonatkozásai is vannak, mivel az eredményes klímapolitikának hatékony választ kell adni az egyéni preferenciákra éppen úgy, mint a társadalomban húzódó különbözőségekre.
... Against this background, a striking feature of the existing literature lies in uncovering the drivers of substantial and persistent variation in the worldwide pattern of global warming responses. Constructing an internationally comparable measure of the stringency of climate change policies and measures, Steves et al. (2011) indicate that European countries tend to adopt more stringent climate-friendly laws and regulations, in response to changing climate ...
... Alesina et al. (2019) argue that higher levels of population diversity are linked to less control of politicians, which is a typical underinvested public good in fragmented societies arising from coordination failure within polarized political regimes. Meanwhile, the collusion between corrupt politicians and emission-intensive industries plausibly impedes national responses to global warming (Steves et al., 2011). These factors contribute to highly diverse societies being less likely to enact stringent national responses to global climate change due to the emergence and persistence of extractive and autocratic institutions. ...
... where CLIMI is the Climate Laws, Institutions and Measures index for country . CLIMI is an internationally comparable measure of the extensiveness and quality of climate-related policies and measures, provided by Steves et al. (2011). Pdiv_aa is an ancestry-adjusted measure of interpersonal population diversity constructed by Ashraf and Galor (2013). is the main coefficient of interest. ...
... Thus, the government is viewed as a benevolent administrator and impartial defender of public interest (Clark 1998) Just as climate change has its adverse resultant effects on the government and the people, the Political economy approach guides in explaining the geopolitics and economics of climate change in Nigeria. This ranges from climate change policies, necessary resource allocation to where factors such as governmental structure, interest groups, and political accountability affect the political economy of policymaking (Steves & Teyteboym, 2013). ...
Climate change is having serious impacts on the sustainability of the world. Growing scientific exactitude on causes and effects of climate change makes humanity’s response to it an urgent and critical need. Nigeria like many countries around the world is facing difficult times owing to the new environmental realities produced by the menace. Responding to climate change requires humanity’s best social, political, scientific, and technological efforts. To achieve this, this paper notes that digitalization can be a veritable climate change response tool in Nigeria. Dwelling on Schumpeter’s theory of innovation and the political economy approach, the paper argues that digitalization holds positives for Nigeria’s hitherto unimpressive climate change response but may not be practicable due to the social, economic and political contradictions that are producing unfavourable outcomes within the Nigerian state. This situation explains why mitigation and adaption efforts have not produced satisfactory results, a situation that puts citizens’ wellbeing in harm’s way in critical areas such as agriculture, housing, healthcare, and energy among others. The paper concludes that digitalization would make mitigation and adaptation wholesome and enhance the adequacy of climate change policies and programmes towards sustainable development in Nigeria. It then comes up with policy suggestions that can help mainstream digitalization as a tool for climate change response in the country.
... Several different reports and databases indicate good environmental performance by Argentina. We use the best available sources of data on climate policy [14]: Steves and Teytelboym's [15] Climate Laws, Institutions and Measures Index (CLIMI) and the Grantham Institute's Climate Change Laws of the World database. 15 The CLIMI measures national climate policy in different countries and is based on policies reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) between 2005 and 2011. ...
... We use the best available sources of data on climate policy [14]: Steves and Teytelboym's [15] Climate Laws, Institutions and Measures Index (CLIMI) and the Grantham Institute's Climate Change Laws of the World database. 15 The CLIMI measures national climate policy in different countries and is based on policies reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) between 2005 and 2011. Policies are scored depending on their proximity to worldwide best practice. ...
... html). 15 https:// clima te-laws. org/. ...
This paper investigates whether economic development is impeded by binding national emission standards to control climate change. We develop a simple model to highlight the potential role of environmental policy for successful clean development in the presence of aggregate demand spillovers in line with the paper by Murphy, Shleifer and Vishny (1989). We consider emissions standards but also discuss the potential of a tax-subsidy scheme and international monetary transfers to achieve (or not) clean development. In theory, clean development depends on both the microeconomic conditions related to technology choice and the macroeconomic conditions related to satisfaction of aggregate demand effects. The model builds on two main assumptions: the presence of fixed costs which give rise to increasing returns to scale in production, and clean technology. We also discuss practical employment of these environmental policies by three middle income countries which experienced declining emissions to GDP ratios as their GDP increased.
... Governance approaches, specifically resource and/or climate approaches deemed as "good governance" (e.g., T A B L E 2 Data sources and download dates for the key variables relevant for Loss and Damage in the global stocktake that we assemble in our harmonized dataset (Steves & Teytelboym, 2014). The CLIMI is comprised of 12 variables that reflect the political economic determinants of climate change policy, grouped into four key policy areas: international cooperation, domestic climate framework, sectoral fiscal or regulatory measures or targets, and cross-sectoral fiscal or regulatory measures (Steves & Teytelboym, 2014). ...
... Governance approaches, specifically resource and/or climate approaches deemed as "good governance" (e.g., T A B L E 2 Data sources and download dates for the key variables relevant for Loss and Damage in the global stocktake that we assemble in our harmonized dataset (Steves & Teytelboym, 2014). The CLIMI is comprised of 12 variables that reflect the political economic determinants of climate change policy, grouped into four key policy areas: international cooperation, domestic climate framework, sectoral fiscal or regulatory measures or targets, and cross-sectoral fiscal or regulatory measures (Steves & Teytelboym, 2014). ...
... The CLIMI is only provided as one snapshot in time by Steves and Teytelboym (2014), so we take this value. The CLIMI data do not contain ISO codes, so we matched country names in the CLIMI data to country names in our dataset, and then joined the two. ...
Abstract Under the Paris Agreement, parties should undertake a global stocktake of progress toward meeting the goals of the agreement and tackling climate change. The first global stocktake will be undertaken in 2023, and an assessment of loss and damage from climate change is an important part of the process. Loss and damage refer to the impacts of climate change felt when mitigation and adaptation efforts are inadequate or absent. Much data, including metrics and indicators relevant for loss and damage, are held in existing global databases, but these are disparate and cannot easily be combined and compared to support the global stocktake. We combine relevant primary data sources to provide a harmonized country‐level global dataset containing relevant indicators of recorded losses and damages from climate‐related events; exposure to climate‐related events; country vulnerability and adaptation readiness; scientific studies of climate change attribution; financial support for climate adaptation; and contextual governance conditions. The indicators are standardized against country population and GDP where relevant. We describe original data sources, processing steps, and an overview of key indicators in the dataset. We also compare the assembled data to existing global risk databases; namely, the INFORM risk index and the World Risk Index. This comparison, provided in the Supporting Information, shows a large amount of redundancy among vulnerability and governance indicators, and we suggest that creators of new databases and risk indices be clear about data limitations and the gaps that specific indices attempt to fill in the global data landscape. We recommend the standard use of ISO codes in future databases of this nature, as well as clear metadata regarding how overseas territories are treated relative to their sovereign state, and information on dissolution and creation of states over time.
... The CCPI is a composite index which addresses policy outputs (which we are interested in) and policy outcomes. It thus has arguably advantages over alternatives such as Climate Laws Institutions and Measures Index (CLIMI) or the Environmental Policy Index (EPI) (Steves and Teytelboym, 2013;Surminski and Williamson, 2014;Wendling et al., 2020). We use both the CCPI composite index and the specific sub-index addressing climate policy output (as part of the robustness checks). ...
Research on urban climate action has identified a broad range of potential factors explaining why and how local governments decide to tackle climate change. However, empirical evidence linking such factors in order to explain actual urban climate action has so far been mixed. To address this roadblock, our paper relies on a novel approach, postulating that different configurations of factors may lead to the same outcome (“equifinality”), through a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). It is based on an available data set of local climate mitigation plans in 885 European cities. We find that urban climate action is systematically associated with four qualitatively different configurations of factors, each with its own consistent narrative (“networker cities”, “green cities”, “lighthouse cities”, “fundraising cities”). Crucially, some factors play a positive role in some configurations, a negative in others, and no role in further configurations (e.g., whether a city is located in a country with supportive national climate policies). This confirms that there is no single explanation for urban climate action. Achieving greater robustness in empirical research about urban climate action may thus require a shift, both conceptual and methodological, to the interactions between factors, allowing for different explanations in different contexts.
